Ding Guang restrained his smile and said lightly: "Ningxia Town is over, the prince is probably captured alive by Song Nan, do you know all this?" ”

Zhou Ping was stunned and said, "Where to start?" ”

Ding Guang coldly said all the situation in the city that the guards sent a letter and depicted, and said slowly: "The prince has three thousand guards to protect the palace, why do you want to send someone to ask for help?" Obviously, the prince also knew that he was not Song Nan's opponent, it had been five or six hours since the chaos in the city, and it was too late for General He to lead his troops to Ningxia to suppress the fear, once the prince fell into the hands of Song Nan, what should you think about the consequences? ”

Zhou Ping took a breath of cold air and said, "General He can't save the prince?" ”

Ding Guang sneered and repeated He Jin's words: "The general has different intentions, but I am afraid that he will not be able to save it; Zhou Ang, Sun Jingwen and others are dead, if the prince is also dead, the general will be the first person; We were originally loyal to the prince, and I am afraid that we will be loyal to the general in the future. ”

Zhou Ping was speechless for a long time, and his face was cloudy.

Ding Guangsenran said: "Brother Zhou, I won't hide it from you, I plan to find a way back as soon as possible, if it is said that it is difficult to follow Wang Ye Jing or become famous, then what is the matter with following He Jin to rebel?" Not to mention that he still has the heart to lure the Tartar soldiers into the customs, I will never do such a thing that will be left behind for thousands of years. The reason why I asked you Brother Zhou to talk about this is because you and I are good friends, and I can't bear you in the dark, so I will consult with you, of course, I Ding will not be difficult, but you can't hold me back. ”

Zhou Ping looked around the big tent, behind the curtain there were swords and swords flickering, his heart was like a mirror, if he didn't agree to this matter today, I am afraid it would be difficult to get out of this tent alive; The reason why he came to discuss with himself was because now the 4,000 people in his front battalion accounted for more than half of the soldiers and horses in the big camp, and in Ding Guang's hands, there were actually only more than 1,000 soldiers and horses.

"There is one more thing I must tell you, tonight's incident The general is very dissatisfied with you, and he is worried that the army will be in turmoil, so he did not punish you, He Jin said, after the rebellion in Ningxia Town is cleared, you will be punished; Qianhu, the guard beside him, heard about this matter, if you think I am fabricating, you can ask him yourself when he returns. ”

Zhou Pingse scolded angrily: "What? Does he want to move Lao Tzu's hand? Lao Tzu has worked for him for so long, and he is too unauthentic. ”

Ding Guang said lightly: "He has the heart to establish himself as a king, and the rebellious people under him are certainly to be removed and eradicated, but your disobedience tonight just gave him a chance." Okay, that's it, Brother Zhou has made a decision, will he get out of the current predicament with me, or will he go all the way to the dark, follow He Jin's rebellion or take refuge in the Tartars? ”

Of course, Zhou Ping understands which path to choose, since the incident of the prince, there is actually a strange atmosphere in the army, everyone says that it is a righteous act, and it is difficult to be loyal, but in fact, they all know in their hearts that this is a rebellion, just because no one dares to tell the truth.

In any case, loyalty, filial piety, and righteousness have been deeply imprinted into the bones and penetrated into the blood, although it is vigorous, it is inevitable that the heart is pressed with a heavy stone; Now that the situation is so bad and the future is unpredictable, Ding Guang lifted the big stone on Zhou Ping's heart, which made Zhou Ping actually feel relaxed for a while.

However, this qiē is all wishful thinking, Ding Guang and Zhou Ping are actually most worried about not whether to rebel or not, but what they are most worried about is actually the attitude of the imperial court, whether it will spare their lives and give them the opportunity to make meritorious contributions. If the court doesn't give them a way to live, they will never take action, and they will die left and right, so it is better to fight to the death.

The two of them summed up for a long time, and decided to first explore the attitude of the soldiers and horses of the imperial court on the other side, and they must have a clear guarantee before they can act, and they will never let go of the arrow, or say that they will not scatter the eagle if they don't see the rabbit.

Before dawn, the West Cliff Ferry was silent, and the river was shrouded in a light mist like a veil, and the sentry of the officers and soldiers on the south bank suddenly saw a small boat on the river near the shore, and immediately became vigilant; The archers bent their bows and shot arrows to stop the boat from advancing, and in the haze, they saw a white flag stretching out from the bow of the boat to dance from side to side, and the sentries hurriedly reported it.

The news was quickly reported to the camp, and last night there was a lot of commotion in the military camp on the other side, and Yang Yiqing, Zhang Yongjiangbin, Xu Tai and others also saw it in their eyes and knew that something had happened on the other side, but they were unable to take the opportunity to cross the river to attack in the dark night, but they decided to send people to try to force the crossing early this morning, so everyone got up very early in the morning. After learning the news, Yang Yiqing led everyone to the shore ferry, and saw a small boat with a white flag patrolling in the distance on the riverbank.

"Let him come." Yang Yiqing commanded.

The boat approached quickly, and the three rebel soldiers on it were exhausted from rowing on the river for a long time, and after coming ashore, they sat down on the ground and gasped for breath for a long time.

"Who are you waiting for? What are you doing here? Yang Yiqing said.

"General Ding of my family and the commander of the former battalion, General Zhou, ordered the villain to send this letter across the river." A soldier pulled a leather envelope from his bosom.

"Shout, this is the next battle book, these guys are arrogant." Jiang Bin laughed.

"It doesn't have to be a war letter." Xu Taidao.

Yang Yiqing quickly opened the letter and browsed it, his face showed joy, the letter turned around in everyone's hands, and returned to Yang Yiqing's hands.

"What do you think?" Yang Yiqing asked.

"This is a good thing, we are in a hurry and it is difficult to force the crossing, since they are willing to surrender, why not? The conditions for agreeing to them are. Jiang Bin said.

Zhang Yong said slowly: "This is too sudden, could it be a fraud?" Although our family does not understand the art of war, we also know that it is common to use military deceit. Isn't there a lot of things like that? If we cross the river in a big way, and they attack us halfway, won't they return with a great defeat? ”

"What Grandpa Zhang said is yes, it may not be a trap." Yang Yiqing said slowly.

Xu Tai said: "It shouldn't be, in connection with the chaos in the enemy camp last night, maybe something really happened." ”

"Maybe it's all a play to lure us in." Zhang Yong frowned.

Everyone fell into silence, this is not a joke, if it is really a trap, it will be attacked on the way to cross the river will definitely suffer heavy losses, and thousands of soldiers will be killed and wounded, and after the defeat, it will take too much time to mobilize troops and horses to come for reinforcements, which will take too much time, which is the most fatal.

Jiang Bin broke the silence and said: "I think we can gamble, Lord Song is in Ningxia Town, we can't watch here; The enemy could have held on steadily, so why play all these tricks to lure us? We were going to decide to cross the river by force in the next few days, but we were frightened by this letter, what is the reason? ”

Xu Tai also said: "Yes, the other side of the strait increased tens of thousands of troops yesterday, and the soldiers and horses in Ningxia Town must have been emptied, I estimate that there is a change in the city, Lord Song must have taken the opportunity to do it, if Lord Song has already done it last night, we are still indecisive here, wouldn't it give the enemy a chance to come back to help?" Isn't it putting Lord Song in danger? ”

Yang Yiqing raised his eyebrows and said: "What I said is very true, if this is a trap, it just means that the enemy battalion has returned to help, this is playing an empty city plan, because we are afraid of crossing the river; A guilty person gives himself away by conspicuously protesting his innocence. If they do want to surrender, that's for the best. ”

Zhang Yongdao: "But Zhou Ping and Ding Guang are both leading generals of the rebel army, do you really want to agree to their conditions, spare their lives, and keep their official positions?" ”

Yang Yiqing said: "Why not? If they are sincere, they have saved thousands of lives, and it is naturally okay to spare them, Lord Song is not in charge of this matter, if the court blames it, I will bear it. At present, the top priority is to immediately cross the river and go straight to Ningxia Town to end this qiē, not to put Lord Song in danger, if something happens to him, we will regret it for the rest of our lives. ”

At present, the plan has been decided, according to the requirements of Ding Guang and Zhou Ping, Yang Yiqing personally wrote a reply letter and set up a written note, making a written guarantee in the name of the deputy governor of the counterinsurgency, ensuring that Ding Guang and Zhou Ping's net worth and official position after surrendering to Cheng were all retained, and ordered the soldiers to accompany the boat across the other side to submit; Of course, in order to prevent fraud, he set an order for a small group to cross the river to try to cross the river, and Jiang Bin insisted on taking a thousand soldiers and horses to cross the river in the first batch, but Yang Yiqing and others couldn't resist him, so they had to agree.

The sun rose high, the fog on the Yellow River gradually dissipated, several small boats rowed from the opposite bank, Ding Guang and Zhou Ping, who had received the guarantee of pardon, actually showed their arms and carried firewood to personally follow the small boat to welcome the imperial army to cross the river, which washed away the doubts in everyone's hearts; At noon, nearly 20,000 soldiers and horses crossed the Yellow River and arrived at the north bank of the West Cliff.

The 5,000 rebels on the other side had already received the order to surrender to Cheng, and had already piled their blades in the open space of the camp in accordance with the orders of Ding Guang and Zhou Ping, and quietly watched the officers and soldiers of the imperial court go ashore and quickly surrounded them. There was no angry expression on their faces, but rather a relief relief.

At noon, Yang Yiqing set up a banquet to entertain Ding Guang and Zhou Ping, and at the banquet, the two mentioned that Song Nan and Qiu Yue had already started in Ningxia Town, and He Jin had already led 5,000 soldiers and horses back to rescue, Jiang Bin and Xu Tai suddenly blew up their hair, and the two scolded Ding Guang and Zhou Ping for why they didn't say it earlier, Jiang Bin almost pulled out his knife and cut Ding Guang and Zhou Ping.

Yang Yiqing knew that the time was urgent, and immediately approved Jiang Bin and Xu Tai's request, and led the Shenshu battalion to Ningxia Town immediately, Ding Guang and Zhou Ping also hurriedly volunteered to follow to express their forgiveness, the two were familiar with the terrain around Ningxia Town, Jiang Bin and Xu Tai actually understood that the two did not deliberately conceal it, even if they were told early, it was noon just to cross the river, but in fact, there was no delay for long; The two said that they knew a shortcut to lead the way, so they agreed to accompany them, and their anger at them subsided a little.

The soldiers and horses of the Shenshu battalion didn't even finish lunch, they were immediately assembled, and Jiang Bin and Xu Tai, who were in a hurry, didn't care about anything else at all, and urged them to leave loudly, and before half an hour arrived, the soldiers and horses had already assembled and set off.

When the soldiers and horses of the Shenshu battalion were rapidly deployed, the siege battle outside Ningxia Town was already in full swing.