Although the heavy snow has stopped for a few days, the mountains and forests on both sides of the rugged mountain road connecting Jiaozhou and Nanqingzhou are still covered with a thick layer of snow, only the snow on the sunny side of the mountain slope has begun to melt and appear to be a thin layer, and the snow on some mountain roads that are in the shadow of the mountains all day long has turned into a thick layer of ice because of the heavy crushing of the Qi army.

With the sound of the hooves of a large number of war horses galloping in the distance, the snow on the side of the road slid downward, and dozens of well-armored Xianbei cavalry were at the head, which were part of the personal soldiers who guarded Dugu Yongye on weekdays.

Because there is a lot of ice and snow on this section of the mountain road, it is easy to slip, so the soldiers slowly slowed down and trotted forward, from the defeat they rode their horses to flee, and now they have fled dozens of miles away, but when they think of the terrible scene at that time, they still have palpitations, and it seems that the farther away they are, the safer they are

Dozens of loyal guards are on the left and right of Dugu Yongye, since the terrifying explosion, Dugu Yongye has always been in a trance, and he can barely ride on his most beloved Yili (one of the names of Yili in ancient times) to run to the present, and he only relies on the superb riding skills he has practiced in the past and the escort of his own soldiers.

The war horse was already very tired after running for dozens of miles, and its pace gradually slowed down, and at this time, a guard gently threw out the whip to keep the war horse at the current trot speed. Fortunately, the Qi army was galloping all the way south with a tailwind, otherwise the cold wind alone would make these defeated troops who did not carry warm clothes feel good.

Riding on a horse, Dugu Yongye's eyes were blank, but he felt in a trance that the scenery on both sides of the war horse galloped rapidly, until now Dugu Yongye could not accept the reality, he failed, he was defeated by Wang Yong, who was far less powerful than himself, and the main reason for the current situation actually came from himself.

When the team turned a corner along the mountain road, they found that there was a relatively open river beach in front of them, and the river valley turned a corner here, and there was a large river beach about a dozen acres in size, because the river water was shallow in winter.

So Dugu Yongye's personal guard captain ordered all departments to temporarily dismount and rest for a while, until this time Dugu Yongye barely recovered some of his spirits, and also found that Yilima under his crotch began to pant, and the heat emitted from his shoulder blades was even hotter.

"Where are we now?" Dugu Yongye watched the guards take his war horse away to wipe his sweat, but he asked the captain of the guard, because he was too tired to run too far, Dugu Yongye's war horse shed a lot of sweat, and the sweat of the war horse must be wiped off as soon as possible, otherwise this kind of sweat in cold weather is easy to get sick and die.

The captain of the personal guard beside him still bowed respectfully and said: "General Hui, we are still thirty miles away from Guan Shuai, but we are already out of the pursuit range of the three Qi traitors!" ”

Dugu Yongye sighed in his heart, even after such a tragic failure, these guards who have followed him for many years still have not changed their respectful attitude towards themselves, but the title of the Sanqi traitor on Wang Yong's side is afraid that it will be changed in the future.

The defeat of the king has been like this since ancient times, and now that Wang Yong has become a great trend, I am afraid that there is really some possibility of sitting firmly in the position of the princes of the world in the future, but I don't know what kind of punishment the court will give itself after returning from this defeat.

Dugu Yongye laughed at himself miserably in his heart, the good news of the recovery of Northern Xuzhou and Southern Qingzhou that he sent to Yecheng and Jinyang is probably just received by the imperial court now, and I am afraid that the imperial court did not expect to receive the news of his defeat later!

At this time, the cavalry teams of other departments who escaped from the battlefield also came to this river beach in a group, seeing that the general was here, these cavalry also dismounted and rested, and ran from the battlefield of Jiaozhou City to here, how to say that there are sixty miles of road, and the war horses alone are tired of uncles and horses, if they continue to gallop, when these Qi cavalry arrive in Nanqingzhou, I am afraid that most of them will become infantry.

After a while, the remnants of the cavalry generals came to Dugu Yongye to report, and now these cavalry generals have escaped from the battlefield when they see the bad situation, and until now I still shudder when I think of the scene like a hell.

To Dugu Yongye's slight relief, there are still more than 4,000 cavalry around him, most of them are the original cavalry under his command, a small part is part of the 1,000 Northern Qi cavalry led by Dugu Sheng, only a few hundred cavalry are from the former Huaisi Xiangma who just defected to Dugu Sheng, as for the infantry, sorry, they are basically buried under the city of Jiaozhou.

Looking at the thousands of cavalry in front of him, Dugu Yongye thought, now there are still more than 10,000 defenders in North Xuzhou and South Qingzhou, plus although these cavalry in front of him no longer have the ability to attack the hinterland of Sanqi, they can also ensure that the recovered North Xuzhou and South Qingzhou will no longer be occupied, at least it is one of his own credits!

Thinking of this, Dugu Yongye looked around at the people around him and said loudly: "Gentlemen, although it is not a crime of war today, the cause of the defeat lies in me alone, but we still have more than 10,000 troops in South Qingzhou and North Xuzhou, which is enough to keep the two places and not lose again!" I hope that you will work together to tide over the difficulties! ”

Although Dugu Yongye also trembled when he thought of the scene at that time, his face still did not change after years of cultivation, and it also made the uncertain Qi generals around him a lot more stable, but no one cared about the fate of the thousands of cavalry sent to the hinterland of Sanqi.

Everyone understood what Dugu Yongye meant when they heard his words, now that they were defeated no matter what, if they wanted to escape or mitigate the punishment they received, they could only keep the two places where they had recovered before, so that people could help them speak.

But if even these places that have been captured before are taken away again, then let alone let the imperial court forgive the sins of the defeat of himself and others under the city of Jiaozhou, I am afraid that the two defeats will be investigated by the imperial court, and when the enemy comes again, even the family will suffer.

The generals who can escape today's catastrophe are naturally not fools, everyone immediately figured this out, and replied loudly together: "The last general will definitely follow the general to the death!" ”

Seeing that the generals were very cooperative and still obeyed their orders, Dugu Yongye's heart was at ease, and what he was most afraid of at this time was that someone would challenge the authority, which would cause the only little strength of the Qi army to split again.

Looking at the many soldiers lying on the sheep felt around him, Dugu Yongye looked at the generals expressionlessly and said: "Now there is still an hour before dark, everyone will rest for another quarter of an hour and set off immediately, and strive to arrive before dark, everyone will rest and recuperate!" ”

As mentioned before, Guan Shuai Guancheng was obtained because of Guan Shuai Town in the small plain next to it, and when the Qi army came to attack before, most of the people in these towns fled before the Qi army conquered Guan Shuai Guancheng.

Although later, in order to reduce the resistance of the people of Sanqi, Dugu Yongye ordered that the houses of the people should not be burned and destroyed after seizing Guan Shuai, but few people in Guan Shuai Town still did not return, and these people later ran to Jiaozhou and were moved to Jiaozhou Port by Wang Yong, and Wang Ze was ready to transport them to the East China Sea to give them a good place to go.

Since Guan Shuai's people did not come back, the houses that stayed behind have become places for the Qi army to rest in the past, and some houses have become temporary warehouses for the Qi army's baggage transportation team.

Of course, Guan Shuai Guancheng is also an important pass for him to resist Wang Yong's southward movement, although it is a little troublesome to defend the Sanqi side of Guan Shuai Guancheng without Guan Shuai Plain as a logistics base, but militarily speaking, it is still a dangerous place for a man to pass the pass.

Thanks to the reason for transporting grain and grass for several days, the snow on the mountain road from Jiaozhou City to Guanshuai Guancheng was all trampled on extremely strong, so except for a few more dangerous places, the cavalry of the Qi army had to dismount and walk, most of the sections could be ridden and trotted.

However, the mountain road is rugged and difficult to walk after all, and when Dugu Yongye arrived at the small mountain plain of Guanshuai Town, it was also late, and every Qi cavalry was very tired when he walked here, whether it was a general or a soldier, and now he was looking forward to a full meal, wash his feet with hot water, and sleep comfortably.

However, when Dugu Yongye was still hundreds of meters away from Guan Shuai Town, he suddenly realized that the situation was wrong, although some of the houses on the edge of Guan Shuai Town in front of which some Qi troops often stayed had fires, but the whole town was quiet without any sound.

You must know that during this time, the team of the Qi army transporting grain and grass is not only transporting grain and grass, but also because of the existence of a large number of Xianbei cavalry, a large number of sheep and goats will come to the front line.

After thinking about it, Dugu Yongye didn't dare to move forward again, he immediately pulled over a personal guard and instructed a few words, the personal guard rode his horse to Guan Shuai Guancheng, and after a while, the personal guard came back and reported: "General, I just went to the city and told the defenders of the city that I was sent by the general to support the reinforcements of Nanqingzhou, and asked them to open the door and let them go, but the defenders in the city said that according to the general's order, the door must not be opened after dark, and I will wait for tomorrow to pass!" "Book six

This time, Dugu Yongye finally determined that there was an accident in Guan Shuai, although he has always been strict in governing the army, but it is not excluded that there is an urgent matter to open the door at night, if the defenders of the city are afraid of their own orders, how can they ask if there is a warrant from the general.

But now the defenders in the city directly refused the request of the guards without even asking, it seems that they must not understand their usual character, but what Dugu Yongye can't understand is that Guan Shuaiguan has thousands of guards no matter how he says, why was it quietly taken away? And who in the rear still has the strength to seize Guan Shuai Guancheng?

Dugu Yongye excluded Wang Yong as soon as possible, if Wang Yong was so powerful, he would have calculated that he would be defeated and flee early, I am afraid that Wang Yong is not the pattern of being trapped in Sanqi today, at this time, Dugu Yongye remembered the large number of bandits who had inexplicably gathered outside Nanqingzhou before.

However, no matter who blocked Guan Shuai Guancheng, now Dugu Yongye must first solve the problem of how to quickly take Guan Shuai Guan back, otherwise Wang Yong's chasing army may come to the city at any time.

The dark Guan Shuai Guan stood on the city full of black shadows holding weapons, relying on the torches of the Qi army outside the city, it could be vaguely seen that these people were all led by a general wearing a cowhide inlaid steel armor and a man in ordinary clothes.

The man in armor looked at the several Qi soldiers who were shouting under the city and spat viciously outside the city, seeing that the clothes on his body were the clothes of ordinary infantry generals under Wang Yong, and there were at least five or six hundred soldiers gathered in the city at this time.

"Captain Zhao, I think these people should have been sent to the rear by the Qi army to ask for help, right? Why don't we let them in and kill them hard? Another man in ordinary clothes beside the general looked at the dozens of Qi cavalry not far from the city, and his lips couldn't help licking, it seemed that he was also a veteran of killing.

The general, known as Zhao Duwei, turned to the man who spoke and said, "I don't look like the team of the Qi army going back to ask for help, you look in the distance!" The general pointed to Guan Shuai Town in the distance, "Just now I saw a lot of figures shaking according to the light of the fire in the town, if they didn't find out that Guan Shuai Guan City we had captured, where would they be careful!" ”

It turned out that the general in the city called Zhao Duwei turned out to be Zhao Kun, who had not appeared for a long time, when he was fighting with the Qi army and Jinan City under Wang Ze, Zhao Kun was the first to take refuge in Wang Ze's heroes with his own subordinates, and was promoted to the post of Du Lieutenant because of his merits during the military and political reorganization in the spring and summer of this year.

When Cheng Chong went south to attack Nanqingzhou, Zhao Kun was also ordered to lead more than 2,000 people along the coastline from Jiaozhou to the south to the north of Yitang County, which borders Nanchen, dozens of miles away, so this became the border between Wang Yong's side and Nanchen.

Although he was a close ally with Nan Chen, even when the frontline fighting in Jeju and Jibei County was at its most intense, Wang Yong did not transfer Zhao Kun out of here, as if he had forgotten Zhao Kun.

Wang Yong didn't really forget Zhao Kun, Wang Yong's eyes were almost red in order to reinforce the western front, and at that time, even half of the original 1,000 defenders of Guan Shuai Pass had to be withdrawn, and where could he forget the thousands of elite soldiers under Zhao Kun who had experienced the war.

But later, Pu Yangxun, Liu Xin and others all said to Wang Yong that although Nan Chen has a close relationship with the prince now, it is based on the strength of the prince and marquis.

So Wang Yong no longer thought about transferring Zhao Kun to Jibei County and other battlefields, although Wang Yong wrote to Zhao Kun to explain this matter later, but Zhao Kun, who was looking forward to fighting the Qi army, was still depressed.

What Zhao Kun didn't expect was that when the battlefield of Jeju and Jibei County was still fighting and confronting, the Qi army still had the energy to attack Nanqingzhou from Beixuzhou in the south, and then attack the hinterland of Sanqi.

At that time, Zhao Kun hated the Ba clan in Northern Xuzhou, and it was understandable that Nanqingzhou and other places were captured by the Qi army, after all, there were only one or two thousand soldiers guarding the land of one state, but the Ba clan occupying northern Xuzhou had 30,000 soldiers to fight!

With so many troops, it should be so incompetent that the Qi army captured the entire territory of Northern Xuzhou in just one or two days!

Because of the inconvenient transportation in ancient times, the middle of North Xuzhou and Zhao Kun's garrison was separated by the densely wooded and impassable Wulian Mountains, so when Zhao Kun received the news that Dugu Yongye attacked and captured South Qingzhou, Dugu Yongye had already stationed troops under Jiaozhou City.

Zhao Kun knew that even if he went to Jiaozhou City to fight the Qi army at this time, it would be useless, so he reorganized his troops and horses and prepared to go through the mountains and forests to the section of North Xuzhou and South Qingzhou to attack the rear grain road of Dugu Yongye, and the heroic deeds of 500 defenders such as An Xin, who died in the battle of Guan Shuaiguan, made Zhao Kun appreciate.

However, at this time, Zhao Kun only had more than 2,000 people and less than 3,000 people in his hands, and the grain route used to attack the Qi army was still a little insufficient, so he began to recruit local people to join the army, recruiting a total of more than 1,000 people before and after, and expanding his team to 4,000 people.

Although there are 4,000 men and horses in hand, but there are thousands of defenders in Northern Xuzhou is still not Zhao Kun's idea, so Zhao Kun's eyes are on Guan Shuai Guancheng, just at this time the bandits in South Qingzhou gathered outside the city, Dugu Yongye decided to send 1,000 of the 2,000 defenders stationed in Guan Shuai to South Qingzhou, and then from the army outside Jiaozhou City and the North Xuzhou defenders each to transfer 500 people to Guan Shuai Pass.

So when Zhao Kun came to the junction of North Xuzhou and South Qingzhou, he happened to meet the 500 reinforcements sent by North Xuzhou, and more than 4,000 people ambushed the team of only a few hundred people on the way, which seemed to sound very shameless, but in any case, Zhao Kun's department was very smoothly transformed into a Qi army.

A small Qi army, and the Qi army swaggering from the south that had been occupied by the Qi army, of course, could not let the defenders of Guancheng increase their vigilance, so Zhao Kun smoothly opened the city gate and captured the Guancheng that the Qi army had to capture at a huge price.

The Qi army in the city was relatively slack because they had not seen anything unusual for several days, and most of them were annihilated by Zhao Kun's troops, but the nearly 100 Qi soldiers who escaped encountered a group of strange bandits, these bandits did not want the money sent by the Qi army, but cooperated with Zhao Kun's troops who came to pursue to eliminate these Qi troops.

It turned out that these thieves were Qingzhou thieves whom Liu Xin had met when he was the owner of the cottage before, and the leader was called Xu Yong, and their cottage was located in the mountains between South Qingzhou and Qingzhou.

Since Liu Xin summoned the bandit leaders he had met in the past, these people have gone everywhere to inquire about Lu Wen's news, and Xu Yong had received Liu Xin's great favor in the past, so he also led his troops to attack, and later because he heard that the Qi army attacked Jiaozhou City, he also rushed to prepare to attack the baggage of the Qi army, and Guan Shuai Town, which has a small plain in the mountains, has become their target because there are often Qi army baggage gatherings.

Zhao Kun brought 4,000 people, Xu Yong also had 2,000 people, and more than 6,000 people at once blocked the entire Guan Shuai to defend the city, and the Qi army got back all cavalry, and there was no siege equipment at all, and they tried to build a few ladders to attack the city in the middle.

The tragedy is that because the craftsmanship is not up to par, the brand-new ladder fell apart before the Qi soldiers climbed the city wall, which made Zhao Kun and Xu Yong, who were originally going to have a good time with the Qi army, stunned!

Early the next morning, Shi Haiguang led more than 3,000 cavalry under his command to arrive, although the number of cavalry of the Qi army exceeded Shi Haiguang's army, but don't forget that there are still Zhao Kun's 4,000 infantry troops in Guan Shuaiguan City, and the Qi army, which has long been demoralized, did not even resist for a moment, and immediately scattered and fled.

In fact, this time the morale of the Qi army was completely lost, because Dugu Yongye quietly fled last night, and he knew that he would not be able to take the Guanshuai Pass this time, so he took dozens of guards to abandon their horses and walk in the middle of the night, preparing to flee back from the nearby mountains and forests.

Although Shi Haiguang didn't catch Dugu Yongye, it was a little comforting to be able to catch more than 3,000 Qi prisoners of war, but the generals Wang Yong gave him were to recapture Guanshuai Guancheng, and Nanqingzhou would not be left alone, because Wang Yong did not have so many troops to defend Nanqingzhou.

After leaving more than 1,000 soldiers to defend Guan Shuai Guancheng, the complacent Shi Haiguang, Zhao Kun, and Xu Yong returned to Jiaozhou City with thousands of prisoners and their respective troops, but they didn't know how Dugu Yongye felt at this time.

"Governor your sister!" A few days later, Dugu Yongye, who had gone through a lot of hardships, finally returned to North Xuzhou, and looked at the Gao Yan warrant he received in front of him and almost burst into foul language, which read: Ling Dugu Yongye is the governor of the capital, and the military governor of North Xuzhou, South Qingzhou, and Jiaozhou states!