Yang Shang led a team of 500 people, led by Zheng Cangsheng, bypassing the dilapidated Jian'an Fort and heading towards Gantang Bay southeast of Zhangtai.

Xu Ruyu stood on the mountain rock, raised his chin slightly, and looked at the cold moonlight.

Bojie, the outpost of the Guards, waited quietly, watching the movement around him, the cold wind blowing, and the dark shadows of the trees were staggered over the rocks.

After Yang Shang led the team away, Xu Ruyu calmly thought about the matter again, and after a while, he turned his head and said to Bo Jie: "Let's go to Jian'an Fort again." ”

Zheng Mengzhun and 1,500 disciples of the Zheng clan were ambushed in the south of Zhangtai City, although they were defeated, but not the whole army was destroyed, it is very likely that people will be sent back to Jian'an Fort to inquire about the news, and Zongzheng Xunda will also send people to monitor the left side of Jian'an Fort.

When Xu Ruyu and Bojie returned to Jian'an Fort, the sky was faint, and the green light was enveloped in Jian'an Fort, which was full of corpses, which made Xu Ruyu's heart feel cold.

Xu Ruyu found that the bird corpse had traces of being turned, and it was estimated that someone would not enter the fort until he left.

When Xu Ruyu first entered Jian'anbao, his heart was agitated, and he couldn't maintain the realm of returning to the heart of the five senses, but the person who came to the side didn't let Xu Ruyu find out, but his skills were much higher than Bo Jie and Zheng Cangsheng.

Xu Ruyu and Bo Jie traveled all the way north, passing through Zhangtai City, and found that the situation there was more tragic than Jian'an Fort. There are many corpses separated from hands and feet at the south gate of the city, the face is hideous and terrifying, I think it was a mutilated Chu before death, countless female corpses in the city ** Chen Fu, the tragic state of the body can be seen the heinous behavior of the Puji bandits.

Xu Ruyu had never found out that the Puji bandits had such a bad behavior when they were repelling bandits in Yongyang and Qingjiang, Xu Ruyu gasped, stared at Bojie beside him with cold eyes, and asked, "Do you know that this is what Puji did?" ”

Under Xu Ruyu's gaze, Bo Jie felt a chill down his spine, knowing that he had made a killing move.

Xu Ru foolishly saw Bo Jie's strange appearance, only to realize that he had unintentionally raised Dan Xi to the extreme, and the momentum that overflowed under his anger was not something Bo Jie could bear. The momentum subsided slightly, and slowly walked towards the north city.

Bo Jie followed Xu Ruyu to slow down in such a terrifying and terrifying city, looking at the tragic situation around him, his heart chilled.

Xu Ruyu stood on the high wall of the north city, looked back at the situation in the city, sighed, and said: "My gentleness delayed the opportunity, causing this tragedy. ”

When Xu Ruyu was in Yongyang, he paid close attention to the bandits in Zhangtai, but at that time, Zongzheng Xunda gathered more than 20,000 Southern Fujian guards in Longyan, which made Xu Ruyu slack off and made a judgment that it was more beneficial for Qingjiang to look at Zhangzhou according to Wuling Mountain, and failed to decisively wave his troops directly into Zhangtai, so that Zongzheng Xunda and Gongliang Youqin had enough time to complete the scorched earth strategy.

The next day, Xu Ruyu stood under the dilapidated fortress wall in the southeast of Dongyang Fort, looking up at the people who repaired the fort wall above, all with sad faces on their faces. Tu Wen Yongyang only said that the Puji bandits once attacked Dongyang Fort from the southeast corner, but the tragic situation was not described in detail, and now it seems that the Dongyang Zhou family only avoided the disaster of extermination.

Zhou Zongchang rushed over when he heard the news, looked at the thin and soothing back in front of him, and asked hesitantly: "But the son of the old man?" ”

Xu Ruyu turned his head, looked at Zhou Zongchang, who was thin and haggard, and saw that there were dark red marks on his temples under his gray temples, which was a sign that he was seriously injured and dying. ”

Zhou Zongchang said sadly: "Where is your fault? Zheng Mengzhun and Huang Gongfu both mentioned to me that they would welcome you into Zhangzhou, but I was selfish and hesitated. The Huang family is over, the Li family is over, Zheng Mengzhun is uncertain about his life and death, there are only 500 remnants left in my clan, I sent someone to Zhangtai City to collect and bury Huang Gongfu's body, his chest burst when he died, flesh and blood were sprinkled all over his body, and his eyes were open, which showed that he was not blind to death. Xu Gong gave me the words 'only the people are protected', I am so ashamed. As he spoke, he wept for a long time.

Zhou Shizhong held his crumbling body and said: "My father has been remorseful for several days, and he believes that the Zhangtai catastrophe is his hesitation, and the injuries he suffered are also serious. When I heard that the adults were coming, I had to struggle from the sickbed, saying that I wanted to go to the last wish of the Duke of Zhou, and personally welcomed the adults into Zhangtai. ”

Xu Ruyu shook his head slightly, and said: "Don't chase in the past, the most important thing now is not to let Zhangtai become a dead place as Gongliang Youqin wishes." ”

Zhou Zongchang lifted his spirits a little, pointed to Zhou Shizhong on his side, and said: "This is the eldest son Shizhong, and he will follow you for me in the future." Pushed Zhou Shizhong back and knelt on the ground, and Zhou Shizhong followed behind and knelt on his knees.

Zhou Zongchang said loudly: "In the twenty-seventh year of the new dynasty, Xu Gong entered the southern Fujian Ping Ryukyu bandits, thirty-two years of bandits, Zhangzhou, Fengzhu and two places are prosperous, but the promotion of peace is only fifteen years, Puji bandits re-afflicted Zhangzhou, until now it is said that almost to death, I implore you to think of the feelings of the old people, do not abandon the place of death, and refuse to help the bandits. After that, he opened his eyes and looked at Xu Ruyu, waiting for him to reply.

Zongzheng Xunda withdrew all the forces of Wulingyi to the two cities of Zhangzhou and Longyan in the south of Zhangzhou Prefecture, the forces of the Zhangtai family were fragmented, and the people panicked and moved south. Qingjiang has just ended the Battle of Fuzhou, and the economic and material use still needs the support of Yongyang.

Even more worrying, the Qingyan Army is located in these two floating places, and there are bound to be many flaws in the eyes of Zongzheng Xunda and Gongliang Youqin. But Xu Ruyu did not enter Zhangtai at this time, and the remaining family forces in Zhangtai had only one way to perish, and Zhou Zongchang opened his eyes and looked at Xu Ruyu.

Xu Ruyu nodded resolutely, but Zhou Zongchang did not respond, and reached out to help him, only to find that he had died suddenly.

Zhou Shizhong hugged his father's corpse and cried: "My father calmly arranged the funeral on the sickbed, just to see the adults with his own eyes, and now the adults have agreed to Mu Zhangtai, and my father will die without regrets." ”

Xu Ruyu followed Zhou Shizhong into Dongyang Fort, only to see that everyone in the fort was vegetarian. Zhou Zongchang's third son, Zhou Shijie was killed in battle, Zhou Shilong's left arm was disabled, and he couldn't come out to see him, and his sons and nephews suffered countless casualties.

When everyone saw Zhou Shizhong coming in with Zhou Zongchang's corpse, they screamed in grief.

Xu Ru couldn't bear to look at it, turned his face away, but heard a muffled voice: "What's the good of being sad in vain?" Stunned, he turned to look, and saw a bearded man standing at the door of the central hall, his face was pale, but he was staring at the sad man in the hall, his left arm was left below the elbow, and the white cloth wrapped in it was dripping blood.

Zhou Shizhong walked over to help him, but he struggled away, he strode in front of Xu Ruyu, and said in a loud voice: "Your Excellency, can you decide to wave your army into Zhangtai?" ”

Xu Ruyu nodded slowly.

He said loudly: "Lin Ji only cut off my left arm, can you allow me to lead the troops to avenge this family feud?" ”

Only then did Xu Ruyu know that it was the remnants of the Ryukyu pirates who defected to Gongliang Youqin who led the crowd into Kouzhangtai, and Lin Ji was Lin Feng's youngest son, and he was only eleven years old when the Ryukyu bandit Ping Lin Feng died.

Xu Ruyu said word by word: "Lin Ji is crippled, even if I want to take his surname and take revenge for the people of Zhangtai who suffered this tragedy." ”

The man laughed, then knelt down on one knee and said, "I, Zhou Shilong, only have a crippled body, but I am not a wasted person, don't forget me when you send out the army." ”

Xu Ruyu saw that the huge wound on his left arm had not healed, but his brows did not wrinkle, his surname was like this, he was really a strange man, he reached out to help him up, and stopped the bleeding for him. Everyone in the hall made a fuss about Zhou Shilong, suppressed their grief, looked angry and cheered up, and came over to see Xu Ruyu one by one.

Xu Ruyu asked Bojie to welcome Feng Yuanyuan's Xiaowei battalion into Dongyang Fort, and Zhou Shizhong gave him a detailed introduction to the current situation in Zhangtai. Only then did Xu Ruyu further learn the details of Zongzheng Xunda's scorched earth strategy.

At the end of July, a large number of Puji bandits infiltrated inland, and Zongzheng Xunda uncharacteristically gathered troops in Longyan and advanced to the southern border of Zhangtai.

Zhangtai and even Zhangzhou Mansion belong to the jurisdiction of the Zongzheng family, but after Zongzheng Xunda ascended the throne, he contracted the defense line and withdrew the guards of Zhangtai belonging to the Zongzheng family to the Longyan belt, and since then the main ones who resisted the invasion of the Puji bandits in Zhangtai were the private soldiers of various families, although Zhangtai was nearly 10,000, but the various ethnic groups were scattered, and they could not tacitly cooperate with each other, let alone establish a perfect defense system.

In recent years, the Zhangtai family gradually abandoned the eastern plateau plain area, and moved the people to the western Fujian Zhongshan and Wulingyi, mainly Dongyangbao, Zhangtaicheng, and Jian'an Fort, and established a defensive line on the eastern edge of the Fujian Zhongshan to prevent the Puji bandits from continuing to infiltrate to the west. It's hard, but it's working.

The Zhangtai family originally wanted to join forces to drive away the bandits, but when they saw Zongzheng Xunda actively marching into Zhangtai, they did not suspect him.

The total strength of the Zhou, Huang, Li, and Zheng clans was only 7,000 people, and they divided their troops to drive away the bandits, but they were afraid of the sea bandits and penetrated through the defensive gaps to Fujian and Zhongshan.

Seeing that this proposal was in their own hands, the four clans agreed without hesitation.

Until mid-October, the Puji bandits suddenly assembled in the southwest of Dongyangbao, with a scale of nearly 5,000 people. Only then did the four clans realize that something was wrong, but they didn't expect that it was the result of the collusion between Zongzheng Xunda and Gongliang Youqin. Zhangtai City itself had only 2,000 troops, and it was unable to mobilize to support Dongyang, so it asked Zongzheng Xunda, who was operating on the south side of Jian'an Fort, to help. The reinforcements passed through Zhangtai City and asked to enter the city to accept the reward of the Huang and Li clans, how could Huang Gongfu have expected that it would be the Puji bandits led by Lin Ji who entered the city?

Five thousand Puji bandits were slaughtered in the city, and five thousand Puji bandits were outside the city to intercept the refugees who fled from the city.

Zhangtai City was broken, more than 16,000 soldiers and people were slaughtered, Lin Ji sent Zheng Mengzhun out of Jian'an Fort with the Zhangtai Metropolitan Government, and ambushed in the south of Zhangtai City, at the same time, Zongzheng Xun Daqin led a large army to besiege Jian'an Fort.

Then, Lin Ji gathered 10,000 bandits to besiege Dongyang Fort, and when Dongyang Fort was about to be destroyed, the Xiaowei battalion arrived in time to save a little vitality for the Zhou people.

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