Chapter 373 (The follow-up outline has been straightened out, I dare not guarantee anything else, I only dare to guarantee that the rest will be more exciting, and will never disappoint the brothers.) ）

When the thieves on the west road fell into an unfavorable situation, the soldiers and horses of the thieves on the east road advanced to the south under the leadership of Xu Yande, with more than 20,000 soldiers and horses of Shenwu Zhongwei and Yingzhou Qianzhongtun Guard, plus more than 20,000 soldiers and horses of Tianjin Sanwei, with more than 50,000 troops, which can be said to be inevitable.

The thieves led by Liu Liu, Yang Hu, Qi Yanming, and Xing Laohu on the East Road marched east from Wen'an County, and it took a day to capture Jinghai County; Before the Tianjin Sanwei arrived, Liu Liu had already swept Jinghai away, carrying 2,000 strong men and more than 100 soldiers who surrendered from Jinghai to the south, and broke Dacheng and Qingxian counties in five days and approached Cangzhou and Hejian Mansion.

There is still a guard and horse stationed in Hejian Prefecture, and there are only more than 1,000 soldiers and horses stationed in Cangzhou, and the self-protection of the two places is still insufficient, so there is no spare strength to rescue each other, and the thieves and soldiers are in Jinghai, Dacheng, and Qingxian counties, and a large number of people are engulfed to fill the army, and the strength of the army has surged to more than 8,000, and the shape is suddenly in danger.

At this time, Xu Yande still led the Shenwu Zhongwei and the Yingzhou two guards on the way to the south.

On the second day of the ninth month, in the face of the approaching of the three guards of Tianjin, the thieves who had rested for six days launched a fierce attack on Cangzhou, which was garrisoned by only 1,000 soldiers and horses. At the cost of more than 2,000 casualties, Liu Liu, Yang Hu, Qi Yanming and others led the remaining 5,000 thieves to capture Cangzhou City.

Cangzhou City is the last strong city to enter Shandong to the south, this city is broken, and there is no strong city to block it in the south; Due to the fierce resistance of the soldiers and horses in Cangzhou, the people in the city also participated in the defense of the city, paying a heavy price, and because Liu Liu, who was shot in the shoulder by the defenders in front of the charge, was angry and ashamed, and broke his previous promise not to kill civilians, and carried out a massacre in Cangzhou City for two days and two nights, Cangzhou City was slaughtered more than 3,000 people in two days, and the houses were burned down, leaving a scorched earth.

On the fifth day of the first month of September, the three guards of Tianjin came to the city of Cangzhou, and Cangzhou had already gone to the empty city, leaving rubble and scorched corpses everywhere; On the ninth day of the ninth month of September, when Xu Yande led more than 20,000 troops to the front line of Cangzhou Hejian Mansion, Liu Liu's soldiers and horses had already moved south to break through Nanpi and Dongguang counties and arrived in Shandong.

At the same time, in order to make the officers and soldiers exhausted, Liu Liu divided his troops again, and ordered Yang Hu Qi Yanming to lead 3,000 soldiers and horses to the east to attack Leling, Yangxin and other counties in the northeast of Jinan Prefecture, and he himself led 5,000 troops to the southwest to attack the counties around Dongchang Mansion; The two thieves are like two sharp knives deep into the hinterland of the east and west of Shandong, interspersed with vertical and horizontal, as if entering a no-man's land.

Xu Yande felt panicked at this time, and when he came, he thought that when he came to the road, the thieves would bow down when they heard the wind, and a military feat was within reach; But until this time, I didn't know that I was in big trouble, the army had been on the expedition for nearly 20 days, and I didn't even see the hair of the thief soldiers, only to see that the large and small cities that the thieves had ravaged were all scorched earth, which was shocking.

After joining forces with Tianjin Sanwei, Xu Yande did not dare to hang his son anymore, and ordered to rush south into Shandong, but because the thieves divided their troops into the east and west, it was difficult to track and pursue, after entering Shandong, Xu Yande ordered Tianjin Sanwei 20,000 soldiers and horses to go directly south to Jinan Mansion, and he led 20,000 soldiers and horses to Dongchang Mansion.

Xu Yande's intention was to tighten the two giant gates to the south before the thieves attacked Jinan Mansion and Dongchang Mansion, and then waited for the opportunity to fight the thieves who were raging in the surrounding states and counties of the two prefectures. The thieves entered a no-man's land, and the territory of Jinan and Dongchang in northern Shandong was in chaos.

……

The situation on the eastern front has become erosive, under the city of Yizhou on the western front, the two thousand cavalry who crossed the water have just arrived under the leadership of Song Nan, and the city of Yizhou in front of them has become a scorched earth, last night the thieves attacked Yizhou, although Yizhou is Xiongguan, but the Maoshan guards and horses stationed in the city were evacuated, the troops in the city were less than three hundred, and they could not resist the siege of the thieves, and the city was broken in the middle of the night.

The thieves were rampant in the city, this place was the place of the garrison, and the people in the city were mostly military households, Liu Qi knew that it was unrealistic to coerce them into the gang, so he and Zhao Qi ordered to burn and loot, fortunately they knew that the cavalry had chased to the south bank of the Yishui River, and did not dare to stay too much, ransacked the city, and after killing hundreds of military families, they hurriedly ran out of the city at dawn, and lit dozens of fires before leaving, and burned the houses in the city to the ground.

The cavalry rode silently on the messy streets of Yizhou, the sunset reflected the wisps of green smoke on the ruined walls, and there were mourning and weeping people everywhere, and corpses everywhere, as if walking in a nightmare.

Song Nan frowned, rode his horse and stood on the ruin-streaked cross street, silent; Several cavalrymen galloped from East Street and came to Liao Ping, the commander of Maoshanwei, who was following Song Nan's side, and rolled the saddle and dismounted.

Liao Ping shook his voice and asked nervously, "How is it?" Did you find it? ”

The soldiers hung their heads and were silent, Liao Ping took a breath and said in a deep voice: "Say, what do you say." ”

A cavalryman said in a dumb voice: "Your Excellency, the Dongcheng Maoshan Guard Yamen has become charred, and we are waiting in the inner hall...... I waited until I found more than a dozen corpses, and ...... Found it! ”

The soldier took a small bag wrapped in rags from his bosom and handed it over; Liao Ping took it with trembling hands, lifted the cloth bag layer by layer, and slowly revealed a golden hairpin full of black ash and a gold lock plate.

The hearts of the people present were bright, this golden hairpin and lock plate must be Liao Ping's wife and children, after the fire, everything will be burned into charcoal, only the gold hairpin and lock plate made of gold are burned, but they are still in zài, Liao Ping's wife and children have obviously been buried in the fire.

Liao Ping's face was snow-white, and he trembled and stuffed the golden hairpin and lock plate into his arms, his eyes were red but he gritted his teeth and endured not to cry, Song Nan reached out and patted his shoulder and whispered: "Mourn!" ”

Liao Ping gritted his teeth and raised his head and said: "Lord Song, the thieves will attack the Bauhinia Pass when they go west, and I ask your Excellency to order immediate reinforcements of the Bauhinia Pass, otherwise the tragedy of my Liao Ping will be repeated in Commander Tan." ”

Tan Zhang was already anxious on the side, his family was not in the Bauhinia Pass, after the thieves broke the city, his wife and children would inevitably have the same fate as Liao Ping's wife and children, if he didn't know that his subordinates could only dispatch more than 700 horsemen, and he was unable to fight the thieves head-on, he would have already led the horses to the rescue; Seeing Liao Ping asking for his life, Tan Zhang looked at Song Nan silently, expecting Song Nan to order the Jinyi Guards to pursue together.

Song Nan sighed and said: "Okay, Hou Zhenfu, Zheng Zhenfu, the two of you will lead a thousand cavalry and Liao Ping and Tan Zhang to rush to the rescue of the Bauhinia Pass, the thieves left Yizhou this morning, and when they have not arrived at the Bauhinia Pass at this moment, it is best to catch up with them halfway." ”

Hou Dabiao and Zheng Da promised to promise, and Tan Zhang said: "Isn't Lord Song going?" ”

Song Nan looked around the city and said: "Tens of thousands of people in Yizhou are still there, their homes have been destroyed, and they urgently need to be properly resettled, otherwise they will have no livelihood, or become homeless beggars, or thieves and thieves, and I, Commander Wan and Wang Qianhu must stay to pacify." ”

Tan Zhang nodded yes, Song Nan looked at the sky and said: "It's getting dark, it's all mountain roads, you have to guard against thieves ambushing and ambushing, and the thieves are used to attacking the city at night, so you have to set off as much as possible; Leave your dry food, just bring a small amount of water, and after the rescue is successful, ask Commander Tan and Commander Liao to lead the troops to stay at Bauhinia Pass and garrison the defense; Our Jinyi Guards and cavalry must return to Yizhou with food, water and other rescue things, and tens of thousands of people are waiting for rescue without delay; He also asked Commander Tan to provide material assistance. ”

Tan Zhang arched his hand and said: "Don't worry, my lord, I will do it." ”

Song Nan nodded and waved his hand, "Let's go." ”

Hou Dabiao, Zheng Da, Tan Zhang, Liao Ping, and the four turned their horses' heads and shouted loudly to order, and in a moment, the cavalry of the brigade swept through the messy streets like a whirlwind, and went straight to the Bauhinia Pass.

Wan Zhi Wang Yong, Li Daniu and others stood beside Song Nan and watched the cavalry go out of the city, Wan Zhi couldn't help but ask: "My lord, are you relieved that they will rescue at night?" There are four or five thousand thieves, and I am very worried that they will not only not be able to save Bauhinia Pass, but will be attacked by the thieves. ”

Song Nan shook his head and said, "No, the thieves will definitely not attack Bauhinia Pass." ”

A few people were stunned and said, "How can you be sure?" ”

Song Nan said: "You have also seen the cunning of the thieves, this is not an ordinary civil unrest that has occurred in various places in recent years, and the noisy officers and soldiers will scatter and flee as soon as they arrive; The fact that they were able to make a ruse break through the encirclement of our officers and soldiers is enough to prove that they are not easy to deal with. On the way here, Tan Zhangyan mentioned the defense of Bauhinia Pass, which is a male pass in the valley, and the purpose of building this pass is to guard against the Tartar soldiers and horses after the breakthrough in the north of Ulzhou. According to Tan Zhang's description, there are two or three hundred soldiers guarding the pass, and the thieves don't want to break through it at all; Even if it is breached, it will not take ten days and half a month to think about it, so knowing that my cavalry is pursuing behind, the thieves will attack Bauhinia Pass? It's not Yizhou City. ”

Wan Zhidao: "Then why did the adults order the brothers to go to the rescue with Tan Zhang and Liao Ping?" ”

Song Nan sighed: "You have also seen the tragic situation of Liao's wife and children, Tan Zhang's wife and children are also in the Bauhinia Pass, and if you care about it, it will be chaotic, and I promised to help him relieve the siege of Bauhinia Pass to take care of his urgent mood; Besides, so many people in Yizhou City whose homes have been destroyed need rescue, how can we stabilize the people's hearts empty-handed? Can only be taken from Bauhinia Pass. The main task of Hou Dabiao and Zheng Da is to bring back materials to help the people of Yizhou. ”

The three of them were suddenly, and Wang Yong said, "My lord, where can the thief go?" ”

Song Nan looked up at the faint mountains in the northwest and said: "Although I don't want to admit defeat, I have to say that we can't catch up with the thieves. We are small in number, and we have lost the advantage of cavalry in the mountains, so we must not pursue them, otherwise we will be asking for hardship. ”

Everyone nodded silently, Song Nan sighed: "Let's deal with the matter here, tomorrow we must go back to the capital and present the truth to the emperor, to suppress this rebellion, the court may have to spend a lot of energy, and if it goes on in such a dizzy way, something big will happen." ”