[Chapter 5, Volume 5]

Section 526

The imperial capital can't be calm this night.

Behind the curtain of thousands of households, whispering, or panicking or doubting, or praying or sighing......

The people of Mandu, whether they are rich or poor, almost all fail to sleep all night.

And in Yanzhou City, hundreds of miles away, if Su Xiuming and Shen Zangfeng hadn't watched it and the soldiers under them, they would have gone crazy!

Their family is all in the imperial capital!

Su Xiuming was sent back to Sangzi Qingzhou by her grandfather because one of her two sons happened to be released, and her only grandson was not in the imperial capital with her parents.

But Shen Zangfeng - parents, brothers and sisters, wife and two sons...... It can be said that everything about him is in the imperial capital!

Even though he was not angry because of his eldest brother, he was cultivated as a future valve master since he was a child, and he has always paid attention to joy and anger, and at this moment, he is trying his best to maintain his composure on the scene!

The gentle advice of his mother when he was young, the strict teachings of his father when he was a teenager, the getting along with his middle brothers and sisters, the honey and coquettish words of his wife, and the two innocent children...... Since he knew the purpose of the Rong people's dispatch this time, these scenes appeared in front of him alternately, and there was no time or pause!

…… At dawn, Shangguan 11 entered the council chamber.

As soon as they saw him, everyone's hearts were relieved, and then they mentioned it, Shen Zangfeng opened his eyes that closed his eyes and took a short break because of the long night of deliberations, and he was full of bloodshot like Su Xiuming and other generals, but when he looked at Shangguan Eleven, his eyes were still blazing, with strong expectations: "Eleven has a clue?" ”

After these days of military career, Shangguan Shiyi's outrageously shy temperament has eased somewhat.

Although he still speaks little at this moment, he doesn't have to be coaxed by others for a long time before he makes a sound.

He said briefly: "Fortunately, I am not dishonored." Then he walked quickly to the wide long table next to the sand table with a large stack of rice paper under his armpit.

Su Xiuming and the others hurriedly surrounded them.

Shangguan 11 unfolded the rice paper, but it was a hand-drawn map. Looking at the topography, it is the northern states of the Great Wei Dynasty, Donghu, Yanzhou, and the imperial capital are the mainstays, and the nearby places are only slightly outlined.

"Previously, when the Rong people hastily retreated in order to hold a ceremony to worship the heavens, this plan had already begun." Shangguan 11 is not good at talking about scenes, and he doesn't need to talk about scenes at this moment, he spread out the rice paper, and when he saw that everyone was around, he cut straight to the point and said, "At that time, although the Rong people defeated the Liu family, in fact, until they retreated, they accounted for nearly two-thirds of Donghu. And at this time they retreated, otherwise, I guess, they will actually have a hard time fighting again, at least not as strong as before. After all, one drum of energy, then exhaustion, three and decline, not to mention the Rong people have plundered countless people, many people are satisfied, and secondly, they have become a burden with their wealth and silk, and they have no heart to continue to fight. ”

"But the people in the Rong people who set up this series of plans were pinching this time, and without waiting for them to show their lack of stamina, they found an excuse to retreat from the army. So much so that we all thought that they were really in a hurry to return for the sake of the heavenly sacrifice ceremony, not only did they not want many of the looted things, but in the end, they even cared for the rout of the rear after being chased by us, and only thought about returning to the king's tent. ”

Shangguan Shiyi pointed to a few places on the map that he had marked with a red pen and said, "Because of the defeat of the Liu family before, when the Rong people retreated, the army did not follow immediately, and there were not many soldiers who dared to pursue and kill. In addition, after the path has been trampled to a certain extent, it is difficult to estimate the exact number of people passing by from it. So in fact, we can't judge at all whether the 300,000 Rong people withdrew from the territory of Great Wei at that time? ”

Everyone finally understood what he meant, and everyone was shocked: "The last retreat was so that these Rong people could hide in the territory of my Great Wei?!" ”

Su Xiuming was surprised: "But now there are about 100,000 soldiers and horses besieging my Yanzhou without attacking, and those who go straight to the direction of the imperial capital through Yanzhou, just from our view from the city, there are at least more than 100,000 people!" How can these many people hide without the slightest trace? And the Rong people gathered the king's tent, and the spies were far away to visually measure the number of people, and it was impossible to miss more than 100,000 people! ”

Shangguan Shiyi nodded, and said: "I'll talk about the hidden things later, let's talk about this number first-due to the previous defeat, when the Rong people retreated, our spies must also follow behind, and they arrived at the king's tent one step later. And it must be counted from a distance. In this case, how do you know that these people were Rong people at that time? Don't forget that Donghu was also exiled at that time, and this is one of them. ”

"Wait!" Shen Zangfeng raised his hand and said, "The number of people can be faked, and it is impossible for spies to take a closer look, so there is indeed a possibility of mistake." It's just that no one of us thought at that time that the Rong people didn't all retreat back at all...... And how they hid most of their soldiers and horses in the territory of our Great Wei, and made us and others ignorant! ”

Shangguan Eleven bowed his head and said, "It's okay." In fact, how to hide, I can't be very sure, this is all speculation: one possibility is that they actually did not leave most of the soldiers and horses lurking in the territory of the Great Wei, after all, the appearance of the Rong people is very different from my Wei people, once encountered, they will inevitably be recognized. However, if they only took the opportunity to send people to bury a large amount of baggage in the Hanhai Gobi, unless it was providential, otherwise, even if the Liu family would send people to pay attention to not letting the Rong people pass through the Gobi, how could they dig up such a large Gobi one by one to check the bottom?

"After all, after the Rong people retreated, Donghu was in a mess, and it was too late to build fortifications, raise the city walls and dig deep trenches. With the addition of baggage, even if something happens and is blocked by our Wei army, it is impossible to build a city on the Gobi, so it can be said that there is no danger to defend. The courage of the Rong people can be fully exerted, and our Wei people will definitely suffer a loss against them in that situation - it is better for the Rong people than to fight siege warfare. ”

There was silence in the council hall, and only Shangguan Shiyi continued, "The second possibility is that these places I circled on the map are all inaccessible places. And it's mostly mountainous or valley. According to the annual success of the past two years, it is not an exaggeration to say that these places are ten rooms and nine empty. The Rong people are scattered and hidden, even if they meet the people of my Great Wei, they all come forward and cut them all, according to the current rule of officials, I am afraid that they have not reacted so far. ”

Shen Zangfeng muttered, "Then which one does Eleven think is the most likely?" ”

"I think it's possible to do both." Shangguan Shiyi said, "The brigade of Rong people is waiting for the opportunity to sneak attack in Dawei, which is extremely easy to discover. When the time comes, the Donghu army will stop it, and the Imperial Forest Army will be surrounded by us here in Yanzhou, and the end of the Rong people will be worrying! It is because they may only lurk a small number of people, first, it is easy to hide, second, even if they are discovered, not to mention the loss, they can even escape if they are lucky, and thirdly, there are fewer of these people, and it is convenient to move, and they can even cover their heads and faces and other characteristics that are easy to expose the identity of the Rong people, and in turn reconnoiter our movements!

And they also hid a large number of baggage in the Hanhai Gobi for the army to pass through. In the past two days, because the 100,000 soldiers and horses left by the Rong people did not attack Yanzhou, it was difficult for our exploration horses to rush through the siege to report the news, and the pigeon letters released were also shot down one after another, and none of them could fly through the camp of the Rong people! ”

Shangguan Shiyi pointed to the map and said, "So I suspect that these places where Zhu Bi circled two roads must have hidden Rong people!" Because this is the only way for Yanzhou, Donghu pigeon messengers and messengers! Although the carrier pigeon has been domesticated, the wisdom is limited, and the route they fly generally does not change, the Rong people are good at riding and shooting, and they also domesticate eagle falcons, and they will catch carrier pigeons by nature. In addition, defend the key roads of the level and snipe the messenger. Oh, and here, there are three circles, all of which are where the beacon is located. In this way, the means of cutting off the warning from the front, the Rong people who infiltrated the heart of the Great Wei can seize the city with the same momentum as this time - otherwise the Liu family should have had a warning message a long time ago, how could I make Yanzhou almost fall into the hands of the Rong people?! ”

…… Speaking of which, the situation in Yanzhou that day was actually more dangerous than that of the imperial capital.

Yanzhou is not as lucky as the imperial capital, the Rong people have not arrived at the city to be found and entered the city in time to report the news, the Taishi who is in charge of government affairs thinks that stability is the best, and would rather find an excuse for the sudden closure of the four gates afterwards to perfunctory past, and also close it first. This is equivalent to saving the people of the city.

When the army of the Rong people suddenly appeared outside the city of Yanzhou, several people in charge of Yanzhou were in the general's mansion to review the official documents, and only soldiers and low-ranking officers were at the gate of the city. However, the arrival of the Rong people was about the same time as the cavalry training in the city, so the soldiers under the city gate thought that the earth shook because the cavalry drilled very hard today.

They also joked with each other and guessed whether Su Xiuming or Shen Zangfeng personally supervised it?

As a result, without saying a word, I saw the banner covering the sky and the sun in the distance - because they did not receive any warning from Donghu, the first reaction of the soldiers at the head of the city and the city gate was not to close the city gate and send a warning signal, but to ask each other if there were any reinforcements coming to Yanzhou to garrison recently?

After such a delay, it was too late for them to see clearly that there were deep-eyed and high-nosed faces under the flag, and then they closed the door in a hurry.

By the time Su Xiuming and Shen Zangfeng received the news, threw their pens and got on their horses, there were already 20,000 Rong people in the city, and more Rong people were still crowding in.

The two uncles and nephews fought bloodily with their relatives, and Su Xiuming began to decline because of her age and physical strength, and she was slashed on the arm...... It was not easy to close the city gate, and then searched out the Rong people in the city little by little and killed them all - in the middle of this, because several officers learned that the Rong people had entered the city, they thought that they could not hold it, so they abandoned their subordinates in panic and asked to open other city gates to escape, resulting in chaos in the whole city, and even a few Rong people touched the outside of the warehouse where the baggage was stored and lit a fire.

Thanks to the timely discovery, there was no big loss.

But after a bloody battle for a day and night, he dragged his tired body to appease the morale of the army and comfort the Li Shu in the city...... After it was easy to stabilize the overall situation, the person in charge of interrogating the Rong people who stayed behind to be the tongue told a terrible news: this time the Rong people attacked on a large scale, and the target was the imperial capital!

The people who took the lead in attacking Yanzhou City were all the Rong people who were not afraid of death, and the interrogators used all means to pry open a person's mouth. So that's all there is to say.

However, most of the Rong people appeared in Yanzhou, but there was no news in the direction of Donghu, and since the failure of the capture of the city, the Rong people no longer attacked the city, but only camped outside the city and set up a deer. It is clear that it is to besiege Yanzhou without attacking it. But there are more rear armies, mighty, heading in the direction of the imperial capital!

This circumstance is enough to support the captive's dying words.

Previously, because of the defeat of the Liu family, in order to resist the Rong people, the elite soldiers who could be drawn were all drawn. The Shen family supported 20,000 Xiliang troops. Later, the Rong people suddenly withdrew from the army, and Donghu had to hurry up to repair the fortifications to prevent the Rong people from coming back, and to clean up the servants to prevent the recurrence of such things as the Xinzhou soldiers.

So now the troops in Yanzhou City are only enough to defend the city. If you want to rush out of the city, unless you don't want Yanzhou City and the city to be burdened, it will definitely pay a huge and even tragic price.

That's not all, the key is that there are so many Rong people now, and there are more Rong people who go to attack the imperial capital, if you pay a heavy price to break out of the siege of Yanzhou, then what's the point of going to the imperial capital?

Even if you add the last 20,000 Xiliang troops in Gyeonggi, there is nothing to look at in front of the tens or twenty thousand Rong people.

Especially after leaving Yanzhou, where did the baggage come from?

Previously, in order to prevent the Shen family from making trouble, the royal family and the families gave restrictions on the baggage of the Xiliang army!

I'm afraid that as soon as the imperial capital is besieged this time, the main generals of the 20,000 Xiliang Army will have a headache for the next grain and grass...... If they were clever and fast, and weren't killed by the Rong people.

The problem now is that the Rong people have no intention of attacking the city, and there is no danger in Yanzhou City for the time being. But how can they help God and take care of their little relatives in the imperial capital???