The knight arched his hand and said, "Back to the lord, the gate of Handong City is wide open, and there are no guards on the city, only the sound of crying faintly heard in the city. ”

Liu Ziqiu frowned and said, "It must be the thieves who are harming the people in the city." Without further ado, men, go full speed into the city and rescue your fathers and fellow villagers! ”

This army, composed of fleeing civilians, shouted and rushed towards the city of Handong like a tide. The knight's message was good, and the gates were wide open and empty. Liu Ziqiu took the lead and rushed into the city without difficulty.

The city was in chaos, and from time to time thieves could be seen rushing out of the houses along the streets, carrying in their hands and on their shoulders, all of which were looted from the houses. Some young women were also driven to the center of the city, crying and crying.

Looking at the rabble, Liu Ziqiu shook his head lightly and ordered: "They are all people who are coerced by Zhu Cang, as long as they are willing to surrender, they will be spared death." ”

They were only faced with thieves, not regular troops. Such a battle didn't need Liu Ziqiu to do it himself, and Liu Ziqiu didn't want blood victory and killing to pollute his son's eyes, so he lifted the reins and took Gao Xiu'er into a big mansion on the side of the road. This mansion must have been owned by a certain family in Handong City, but now it has long been empty and has become Liu Ziqiu's temporary command post.

Liu Ziqiu teased his son in the temporary command post, and finally coaxed his son to get closer to him, and was willing to let him hug him, and he was pushed open by someone with a "bang" at the door.

Da was stunned and strode forward, his face was still unfinished, and he arched his hand and said: "Lord Qiqi, the battle is over!" ”

There was no suspense in this battle, but it ended so quickly that Liu Ziqiu was deeply surprised, and the result of the battle surprised him even more. There were no more than a thousand thieves in the entire Handong City, and these thieves were ordinary people with no combat experience a few days ago. is such a thief who disdains in the eyes of Da Xuan, and he is actually frightened that Han Dongtai abandoned the city and fled.

Liu Ziqiu was silent for a long time before asking, "Have you heard any useful news from them?" ”

Da was stunned and bowed down and said, "Back to the lord, my subordinates have already interrogated the prisoners. According to the prisoner's confession, Zhu Cang had personally led the army to leave Xiangyang and attack Nanyang. ”

Liu Ziqiu had just passed by Nanyang two days ago, and knew that there was a large population and sufficient money and food. If Zhu Cang can really fight there, it can greatly increase Zhu Cang's strength. Liu Ziqiu couldn't help but nod and said: "It seems that Zhu Cang is not too stupid, he made a move to attack the east and the west, and invaded the east with a small number of troops, but led the main force to the north. ”

Da was stunned and clenched his fists and said: "Back to the lord, according to the captive, Zhu Cang also has two staff, one is the Great Sui writer Zuolang Lu Congdian, and the other is Yan Chuchu, the general secretary. A lot of things are the people behind these two people's plans. ”

Liu Ziqiu sneered: "If it weren't for these people helping to abuse, how could Zhu Cang be in trouble!" Write down the names of these two men, and you will not be spared! ”

Da was stunned and responded to a promise, but hesitated: "Enlighten the lord, Zhu Cang marched into Nanyang, but cut off the way for our army to return to Chang'an in the north, please decide!" ”

Liu Ziqiu smiled and said, "It's okay, Zhu Cang will attack the west, then let's give him a salary from the bottom of the kettle!" Ordered the three armies, rest for a while, set off overnight, and take Xiangyang directly! ”

Gao Xiu'er was shocked, and said in a loud voice: "Husband, the concubine heard that the city wall of Xiangyang is high and deep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, far from being comparable to Handong. I also hope that my husband will think twice. ”

Liu Ziqiu glanced at his ignorant son, stretched out his hand and gently covered his ears, and then said: "I understand Zhu Cang, he has brute strength, but he has no strategy, and what he is best at is moving around. Everywhere they went, they ate food when they had food, they ate people when they ran out of food, and when they ran out of food, they moved to the next place. Now, since he has left Xiangyang, he must not have much to eat in Xiangyang. And it is impossible for him to leave many soldiers and horses in Xiangyang, which should be an empty city. ”

Gao Xiu'er believed Liu Ziqiu's words, but she was secretly surprised. He has been by Liu Ziqiu's side for a long time, and he often listens to Liu Ziqiu talk about the heroes of the world, but he has never heard Liu Ziqiu mention Zhu Cang's name. And now, Liu Ziqiu actually knows everything about Zhu Cang's situation, which makes Da stunned so much that he is the patron saint of the mortal world.

The truth was as Liu Ziqiu expected, when he led the army to Xiangyang City, it was already an empty city, and the miserable scene in the city was unbearable, it was simply hell on earth. Except for the strong city walls, which still stood stubbornly behind the moat, the entire city was burned to the ground, and white bones could be seen everywhere.

Liu Ziqiu sighed, and while organizing the people to bury the bones, he sent people to Nanyang to inquire about Zhu Cang's movements.

Soon, the news came back that Zhu Cang had already led the army to surround Nanyang City, and attacked day and night at no expense. There was no surplus food in Zhu Cang's army, and the soldiers on both sides who died in the siege battle, as long as they fell under the city, were dragged away by Zhu Cang's soldiers and eaten as food. It was precisely because of the barbaric actions of Zhu Cang's army that the defenders at the head of the city had begun to shake their morale, and it was only a matter of time before the city was broken.

Hearing such tragic news, even Gao Xiu'er, who had always been bold, turned pale, and the hand holding Liu Ziqiu trembled slightly.

Liu Ziqiu was furious, and shouted: "Someone! Prepare your horse and raise your sword! ”

Gao Xiu'er was shocked: "Husband, I heard that Zhu Cang's men have 100,000 people, how can you take these people to beat them?" ”

"Haha, haha......" Liu Ziqiu looked up to the sky and smiled, full of pride for a while, and said loudly, "Although there are many thieves, in fact, the first evil is Zhu Cang's ears!" Don't worry, Zhang Yide can take the first rank of general in the 10,000-horse army, and I, Liu Ziqiu, will never lose to him! As long as Zhu Cang is captured, the rest of the people will collapse without a fight, what a way! ”

Liu Ziqiu knew very well that unless the Hexi Army or the Changshan Army had a group of men and horses here, it would be impossible to defeat Zhu Cang with the temporary army composed of these people alone, and every day of delay, he would not know how many lives would be lost. Gao Xiu'er is right, many injustices will be punished by God. In the Mobei grassland, the killing he made was too heavy, and his hands were covered with blood. He now had to wash away his sins by rescuing more living beings.

……

The battle outside Nanyang City had been going on for two days, and the defenders of the city had seen those thieves boiling human flesh with their own eyes, and no one was terrified. Nanyang was too guarded by Ma Yuangui and even wanted to go out of the city and surrender, just to be able to keep his family from being eaten. But I was worried that it would be self-defeating, and I couldn't make up my mind for a while.

At dawn that day, gongs and drums sounded outside the city again, which was the unique offensive signal of Zhu Cang's thief army. Zhu Cang didn't care what he was doing, he was going to enter when he heard the drums, and he was retreating when he heard the gold, what he caught and knocked on. There was a commotion outside the city, there were drums, gongs, and horns, plus all kinds of messy shouts, which were noisy and unpleasant, and the defenders at the head of the city were also panicked.

But the people who were coerced by Zhu Cang had already become numb, and the fate that awaited them was either to eat people or to be eaten. If they can capture Nanyang City, they can eat people, but if they can't capture Nanyang City, they can only be eaten. In fact, if there is food to eat, who wants to eat people? There is only Zhu Cang who really likes to eat people, and everyone else is forced by Zhu Cang.

Hearing this noisy sound, the people, who had long been numb, took up all kinds of weapons and rushed to the city.

Zhu Cang held a long lance in his hand, standing under the cyan flag, waiting for the news ahead with a proud face. Like this and siege battles, he doesn't know how many times. Even a fortified city like Xiangyang only lasted three days, and the will of the defenders completely collapsed. It is not easy for Nanyang City to be able to hold on until now. However, Zhu Cang believes that after today's battle, Nanyang City will be defeated.

At this moment, I suddenly heard a shout behind me. When Zhu Cang turned his head to look, he saw a person and a horse galloping over. The horse is black, and the man is black, and from afar, it looks like a black whirlwind. The man on the horse was dancing with a strange knife, and everywhere he passed, he was invincible, and he was rushing to his side.

It turned out that when Liu Ziqiu arrived outside Nanyang City, Zhu Cang had already launched a siege battle. Liu Ziqiu first turned around at the south gate, caught two thieves and asked, only to know that Zhu Cang was at the east gate, and hurriedly beat the horse and ran to the east gate.

These thieves were originally a rabble, even if they marched and fought, they did not follow the ranks, they were chaotic, and their clothes and armor were also disorganized, and they could not distinguish between friend and foe at all. And their attention was all on Nanyang City, and no one noticed Liu Ziqiu, who was riding alone. Liu Ziqiu came to the east gate smoothly without any obstacles.

The scene was the same outside the east gate, except that there was an additional cyan banner with a group of cavalry clustered under it. Although Liu Ziqiu didn't know Zhu Cang, he was also experienced in a hundred battles, so he could naturally guess that Zhu Cang was under that flag, and immediately roared and rushed over on his horse.

The thieves along the way didn't expect that someone would be so bold as to break through thousands of troops alone, and when they understood, Liu Ziqiu was only fifty steps away from the big flag. The thieves swarmed in, swords and spears fluttering. How could Liu Ziqiu be as fast as lightning, and in the blink of an eye, he killed dozens of people, only thirty steps away from the banner.

Some of the thieves also began to cast random arrows, but these thieves were all coerced people of the Central Plains, not nomads on the grassland. Although they had bows and arrows, they could barely pull them apart, let alone get to know what to do.

Liu Ziqiu sat down, although the black horse was not as good as the Pegasus Snow Leopard, but it was also one of the best horses, jumping freely in the crowd, and those feathered arrows fell behind it one after another. Those thieves failed to shoot Liu Ziqiu, but accidentally injured many of their own people.