Chen Antian nodded, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, waited until the severe pain was better, and said in a low voice: "When I led the army to Xiuzhou, the official army set up a village outside the south gate, and I was preparing to set up camp first and then pull out the official army camp. Suddenly, one of the officers and soldiers rode out of the village to challenge us! ”

"And what's next?" Demon King Zheng and Fang Qifei glanced at each other and asked.

"I saw that the knight was skilled in horsemanship and martial arts, so I chose a man to fight him, and secretly ambushed a crossbowman—"

Chen Antian recounted the failure in detail. Everyone in the room couldn't help but look at each other, and after half a sound, Demon King Zheng said in a low voice: "It shouldn't be that Wang Ziwu, it seems that the reinforcements have arrived!" ”

"Yes, but it should only be a striker, otherwise there wouldn't be only such a few people!" Fang Qifei nodded, he looked at Demon King Zheng: "Now the situation is very clear, the imperial army has arrived, if we let him cross the river, we will all die without a place to bury!" ”

"Okay!" Demon King Zheng nodded helplessly: "I'll go and let the sons and daughters leave all their belongings and prepare to go to Xiuzhou!" ”

"That's good!" Fang Qifei turned to the rest of the people and asked, "What about you?" ”

"I would like to listen to the chief manager!" Seeing that Demon King Zheng also relented, everyone had to nod their heads in agreement.

"Okay, let's go and prepare, and send troops to Xiuzhou tomorrow morning!" Fang Qifei said loudly, and when everyone left, his gaze turned to Chen Antian and said: "Chen Antian, originally according to military law, you are a dead end, but this time only you know the situation of the official army best, so I will spare your life first, if you don't succeed, then you will not be spared, understand?" ”

"The villain understands!" Chen Antian lowered his head: "The villain fought to the death this time. You will never die from the Governor's Knife! ”

"That's good! Go down and get ready! ”

Xiuzhou City.

The snoring in the guest room was like thunder, and the flames in the two braziers in the corner of the wall had been extinguished, revealing charcoal that had burned white. Zhou Ping lay on the couch, and the brocade was removed, revealing the moon-white middle coat inside. After defeating the vanguard of the Fang La army, he commanded the repair of the city defenses, comforted the wounded soldiers, and was busy on all fours. When he returned to his lodgings, he slept like a dead pig on the pillow on his head.

"Bang bang!" Suddenly, there was a sharp knock on the door. Zhou Ping woke up from his sleep, he opened his eyes with difficulty, and asked impatiently, "Who?" ”

"It's me, the prisoner. Someone from the Commander Army. There is an urgent call! "It's Li Bao coming from outside. His current position is the Governor of the Tent, and he is simply the captain of the personal army and personal bodyguard.

"Damn it!" Zhou Ping complained in a low voice and sat up from the couch. Loud voice: "I'll come out right away!" ”

After a while, Zhou Ping walked out of the house dressed neatly, the damp and cold air unique to the southern winter outside the house immediately made him shiver, Li Bao handed over the cloak, and said in a low voice: "The envoy of the unified army has returned, and the successor of the Manichi thief has arrived, and the general led by him is Fang Qifei, I heard that there are tens of thousands of people!" ”

If Zhou Ping's mind was still a little sleepy just now, this amazing news immediately made him completely awake, he shook his head, took the horse whip handed over by Li Bao, and asked, "How many days have it been since we arrived in Xiuzhou?" ”

"Thirteen days!"

"Hmm!" Zhou Ping nodded, and recalled in his mind what Wang Yu said before leaving: "Guarding Xiuzhou for fifteen days is your great achievement!" Thinking of this, Zhou Ping whispered in his mouth: "Presumably, Wang Dutong's army should also be on the way to Xiuzhou now!" ”

Zhizhou Yamen.

The atmosphere in the hall was heavy, and the relaxed atmosphere after defeating the 10,000 square army not long ago was gone, whether it was Wang Ziwu, who was the highest military and political governor of Xiuzhou, or Zhang Jian, who was responsible for the specific command of the original Song army in Xiuzhou, his face was the kind of forced calm but not successful. However, the expressions of the few guest officers who had just fought with the strikers of Fang Lajun were much more relaxed, and Xue Liangyu and a few other young people were still a little eager to try.

"Prison Zhou has arrived!" With the sound of the outside, except for Wang Ziwu himself, the rest of the people in the hall stood up, the difference was that the generals of the guest army stood much more neatly, while the local generals in Xiuzhou were much more chaotic.

"It's too late in the end, please unify the army to punish the crime!" Zhou Ping bowed to the prince among them.

"Zhou has been imprisoned for a few days, what is the crime?" Wang Ziwu smiled, pointed to the empty chair on his right hand side and said, "Sit down quickly!" ”

"The lower official has overpassed!" Zhou Ping saluted Wang Ziwu with his hand, and made a group gesture to everyone before sitting down on Wang Ziwu's right hand. Wang Ziwu saw that everyone had arrived: "Ladies and gentlemen, the spies have just sent news that Fang Qifei, the general under the command of the anti-thief Fang La, has led an army of 50,000 and is coming to my Xiuzhou, and the situation is urgent." Speaking of this, he turned over slightly and asked Zhou Ping, "Prison Zhou, how do you think we should deal with it?" "Although Wang Ziwu has already withdrawn the letter and looked at things again, with the prestige accumulated by the Mani thief not long ago, Zhou Ping is already the leader of the warriors in Xiuzhou City, even Wang Ziwu himself has to consult him first.

"As the last general saw, when the city was defended, there was plenty of food and equipment in the city, and there were walls to rely on, and the outside of the city had been fortified and cleared. Although the number of Manichaean thieves was large, the armor was insufficient, not to mention the siege equipment. Although we are not enough to defeat the enemy, we have more than enough to protect ourselves. Even if the army of the king is the capital in the next few days, it will be able to win a big victory when the internal and external attacks are flanked! ”

"What Prison Zhou said is very true!"

"The last general also agrees with what Zhou Prison said!"

As soon as Zhou Ping's words came out, all the generals in the hall nodded one after another, Zhou Pingcai's suggestion did represent the mentality of most of them. Since the Manichi thief uprising, he has conquered everything, invincible, overturned many states and counties, and Xiuzhou has been outnumbered with thousands of weak soldiers and beheaded thousands, which is already the first achievement. It can be said that everyone here has a share, and they can be added to the ranks. But whether it is an official or a nobleman, you have to take your life to be able to enjoy it, the battlefield is different from the court, the court has lost at best to chase down the text since the birth, no family wealth, exiled to the evil military state, as long as you can save your life, there may not be no chance to get back up, on the battlefield arrows, swords and guns do not have eyes, and if you lose your life, you will never come back. If you have the credit, why go out of the city and fight those Manichaean thieves?

"Although the adult Geng is shallow, he is an old man seeking a country!" Wang Ziwu said with a smile, at this time in his eyes, Zhou Ping is really indescribably cute, he can fight, and he can understand the mind of his boss at a critical time, no wonder he was able to climb from a field guest to the position of the state soldier and horse prison in just over two years, that Han Xiaoxuan is quite discerning in looking at people.

At this time, a general asked: "Commander the army, but there are still more than 1,000 captured Manichaean thieves in this city, what should we do?" ”

"The more than a thousand captives?" Wang Ziwu frowned, and groaned, it turned out that that day Zhou Ping made a bluff, Chen Antian was defeated, Xue Liangyu led that small group of cavalry to break through the enemy formation, some Manichaeans thought that the army had arrived, they were surrounded, they dropped their weapons and knelt down to beg to surrender, there were about 1,300 people who were captured, Zhou Ping detained him in a vacant lot in the west of the city, ready to wait for the army to arrive and deal with it, but he didn't think that Fang La's successor was faster than Wang Yu.

"What does Juncheng think?" Wang Ziwu asked.

"The enemy is outnumbered, it is not appropriate for these people to stay in the city, it is better to drive them out of the city later!" Zhou Ping replied without thinking.

"No!" Prison Zhang shook his head and said, "These Manichi thieves have been in the city for a few days, and they know very well that there is reality in our city, if they are released, won't they be leaked to Fang Qifei?" Never! ”

An ominous feeling flashed in Zhou Ping's heart, and he asked, "Then what do you say should be done?" ”

"Naturally, it is all disposed of to avoid future troubles!" Zhang Jian Jian stretched out his right palm and made a downward gesture.

"No!" Zhou Ping said angrily: "Not to mention that killing prisoners is ominous, almost all of these people are small people, and they are coerced by Fang La's thieves, how can they be killed like this?" Never! ”

Prison Zhang's face was slightly angry, but Zhou Ping's elite soldiers showed strong combat effectiveness in the battle not long ago, and he didn't want to offend the other party, so he had to try his best to reply in a calm tone: "Prison Zhou!" You are a foreigner, and the unknown Manichaeism is widely spread in Liangzhejiang, but I am afraid that there is also Fang La's internal response in this city, and killing these people is also to give them a little color, and you let them out of the city, just afraid that they will come to beat us when they turn their heads, how will you deal with it at that time? ”

"The city of Xiuzhou is strong, the Manichaean thieves have no siege equipment, and reinforcements are just around the corner. Although the enemy army was numerous, it was impossible to take the city. Zhou Ping knew that the key to this matter lay in the prince Wu of the unified army, and persuaded him: "There will be evil retribution for killing prisoners, why should the unified army do such a thing and leave a handle for future generations?" ”

When Prison Guard Zhang heard this, he was impatient in his heart, and sneered: "What Prison Prisoner Zhou said is not like a warrior with a bow and arrows and a spear, but like a great monk who recites scriptures and eats fasting. Wherever the Manichaean thief goes, the slaughter is exceedingly severe, and the officials shall cut off their limbs, and probe their lungs and intestines, or boil them with anointing oil, and shoot them indiscriminately, and prepare them with poison. What is the point of not killing such wicked people who have no heart? ”

Hearing this, Wang Ziwu had already made a decision, and he said to Zhou Ping in a deep voice: "Zhou is imprisoned, don't use thunder means, and don't show the heart of the Bodhisattva!" Rest assured, this killing of the captives has nothing to do with you. Speaking of this, he didn't wait for Zhou Ping to answer, so he said to Zhang Dujian: "Zhang Dujian, this matter will be handed over to you, handle it cleanly!" ”

"Xiaguan knows!" Zhang Dujian got up to receive the order, and his face couldn't help but show joy.

After the military discussion, everyone got up and left, Wang Ziwu made a gesture to show that he left, and when there were only two people left, he said with a smile: "Juncheng, you don't have to take today's matter to heart, Zhang Dujian is only a middle-aged person, and the matter of defending the city still depends on you!" (To be continued......)