The night was as dark as ink.

The sound of the cold wind blowing is like the arrival of ghosts, and people can't help but feel frightened.

Several soldiers guarding the city on the east gate of Anhui City put their spears on the battlements of the outer wall, and one by one put their hands into their sleeves, hunched their backs, and kept walking back and forth, stomping their feet.

A soldier of the Jiangdong Army complained: "The black light is blind, who will attack the city, the officials are all bad-hearted, let me wait here to freeze and starve!" ”

"It's just that it's too cold, I'm afraid it's going to snow tonight! Why don't those who are officials come to the city wall to be on duty? ”

Shi Chang stopped: "Okay, it's enough to say two words to get angry, General Ling just suffered a defeat, and the Shangguan were all called to discuss the matter, and if you continue to talk about it, you will be heard and sued to the Shangguan, not only will you be punished, but you will also be unable to eat and go around!" ”

One of the soldiers said, "If only I had waited below, it would be warm in the gate hole, and I would find a corner and lie down against the wall until dawn!" ”

Another soldier carried it: "As long as you dream, why don't you want to eat meat every day?" It's dawn when you think about it! ”

When it came to eating meat, these Jiangdong soldiers couldn't help but swallow their saliva, they hadn't tasted meat for a long time.

At this time, coughing and moaning seemed to be heard in the cold wind.

"Hey, sir, do you hear a voice coming from outside the city?" One of the soldiers stopped stomping his feet and leaned against the battlements to listen.

Shi Chang was stunned for a moment, and immediately listened attentively, and sure enough, he heard the sound, and immediately shouted: "Be on guard!" ”

Several soldiers immediately took up their weapons, some took spears, some took broadswords, and two took longbows and arrows and aimed them at the castle tower.

There were no lights or torches on the castle towers, and even if it was lit, it would be blown out immediately by such a strong cold wind at night.

Outside the city, there was more and more movement and noise.

"Who is under the city?" Shi Chang shouted.

Soon a voice came from outside the city: "Open the city gate, we are the soldiers who were scattered under General Ling, we are waiting to escape back, open the city gate quickly!" ”

The voices of many Jiangdong accents next to him followed: "Open the city gate, open it quickly, you want to freeze us to death?" ”

"You are hiding in the city to enjoy the blessings, causing me to fight with the bandits, not to mention the defeat, I almost lost my life, and now I am cold and hungry, why don't I open the city gate quickly and let me wait to enter the city to drink a sip of heat!"

Listening to a large number of drum noises coming from outside the city, the soldiers of the Jiangdong Army on the city tower estimated that there should be one or two hundred people outside the city.

"What's long? Can't it be opened? A soldier asked.

Shi Chang frowned, embarrassed, the tun chief and above officers were all called to the Taishou Mansion to discuss matters, the biggest official on the city tower is him, how does he know if he can open the city gate?

Shi Chang was still very cautious, and he was also afraid of taking responsibility, so he immediately pointed to a soldier and said: "You, go to the Taishou Mansion to report that more than 100 scattered soldiers under General Ling have returned, and they are shouting outside the east city gate to enter the city, asking if they will open the city gate and let them into the city!" ”。

"No!"

Taishou Fufu.

Ling Cao stood in the middle of the lobby with a decadent face and told Sun Jing about the process of going to Crouching Tiger Ditch and being ambushed on the way back.

Sun Yu and the other military and civilian officials were dumbfounded.

After hearing this, Sun Jing asked, "General Ling, are you sure that the bandits are waiting for Fuer?" ”

"This ······ Isn't that gang of bandits, who are they? There's only this gang of bandits around here! Ling Cao said in surprise.

Sun Jing shook his head, he didn't believe that there would be such a scheming person among a group of bandits, nor did he believe that a group of bandits had such a strong combat power.

In fact, he was really wrong, although the cavalry under Zhang Min was born in the Yellow Turban Army in the past, but after being recruited by the former Xuzhou Mu, it became a regular army, after regular military training, proficient in horsemanship and cavalry warfare, although it may not be as good as the White Horse Yicong, and the state iron cavalry, but it is no problem to march and fight, and charge into battle.

When I went to Crouching Tiger Gully, I was not ambushed, but when I turned around, I was attacked by surprise, which ······ This kind of thing has never happened to them, but they have never encountered it in all these years.

And this matter is obviously unreasonable, if it is said that the mountain forest itself has ambushed a large number of people and horses, why didn't Ling Cao lead the troops to attack by surprise, but waited for them to come back before attacking?

Also, which side is the centaur in ambush? Until this time, Ling Cao and the soldiers and officers who fled back with him didn't understand, and they didn't even know who the enemy was, so they were defeated in such a daze.

Sun Jing said: "We waited for more than ten days to capture Anhui City, during which the lord and General Zhou led the army to fight with Liu Xun's tens of thousands of troops, our Jiangdong Army did not occupy the entire territory of Lujiang County, since Liu Xun was defeated and fled to the north, several counties have sent people to submit a letter of surrender in the past few days, but our army does not actually control it, maybe it ······"

Sun Yu immediately said: "To the northeast of Anhui City is Juchao, is it the county soldiers who live in the nest?" ”

Sun Jing shook his head: "Don't speculate until the matter is clear, my Jiangdong Army has newly occupied the Lujiang River and has an unstable foothold, so we still have to focus on deterrence by force, supplemented by appeasement and co-opting local forces!" ”

"Newspaper—"

Just as everyone was deliberating, a soldier sang loudly all the way, and ran in all the way to report loudly: "Report - many defeated soldiers have returned from outside the East City Gate, claiming to be soldiers under General Ling, who were scattered by the enemy when they were ambushed!" ”

Ling Cao hurriedly turned around and asked, "How many people have returned from the rout?" ”

"This ······ There are more than 100 scenes, less than 200 scenes! The soldier who told the news hesitated and replied.

Ling Cao's face turned gloomy after hearing this, there were five hundred people when he went, and there were only more than forty people when he came back, plus there were only less than two hundred of these routs outside the city, which means that more than half of them were lost.

Sun Jing was cautious and asked, "Can you see clearly that they are all my Jiangdong sergeants?" ”

"It's too dark to see clearly, but the accent is my Jiangdong accent! The soldiers shouted outside the city, saying that they were cold and hungry, and many of them were wounded, and they were clamoring for me to open the city gate as soon as possible, and many of the soldiers were frozen to death! The soldier who reported the news replied truthfully.

Ling Cao felt sorry for the soldiers, and hurriedly hugged his fist to Sun Jing and asked: "Taishou, since they are all my Jiangdong accents, it must not be wrong, I think that even if those enemy soldiers are pretended, the accent cannot be pretended!" Please also order the gate guards to open the gate and let them in! ”

There were only more than a hundred people, and Sun Jing didn't care too much.

But out of prudence, he thought about it for a while and said to the soldier who reported the news: "Spread my order, let the person in charge of the city tower throw a few torches down, and if they are all wearing the clothes and armor of my Jiangdong army, open the city gate and let them enter the city, let them go to the military camp north of the city to rest, order someone to prepare food for them, and find a military doctor to treat the wounded!" ”

"Order!"

The soldiers who reported the news received the military order and returned to the city tower to convey Sun Jing's order to the chief.

Shi Chang immediately walked to the leeward place and lit three pine oil torches with a fire sickle, and the lit torches blew loudly in the cold wind.

"Don't shout at the people outside the city, get out of the way, I'm going to throw torches to check your identity!"

After the sound fell, three torches were thrown down from the castle tower, and the Jiangdong routs outside the city were so frightened that they immediately pushed them away.

By the time when the torches flipped in the air and shone a faint light on a place outside the city, the soldiers on the city tower saw clearly the clothes and armor of the defeated soldiers under the city, and sure enough, they were all the clothes and armor of the Jiangdong Army.

"Alright, let the people inside the city gate open the city gate and let them in!"

"No!"

With a creaking sound, the gates slowly opened.

Outside the city, the defeated soldiers swarmed towards the city gate.

When a large number of defeated soldiers poured into the city gate hole, the mutation suddenly occurred, and many defeated soldiers picked up big knives and slashed at the Jiangdong defenders who opened the city gate.

"Kill—"

The shouts of killing came out, and there were only five soldiers in the city gate cave, and they were hacked to death by the bandits who rushed in and mixed with the routs in three or two clicks.

At this time, Qin Feng had already rushed into the city with the main cavalry of the brigade, and ordered: "Juniper, you will take people to deal with the defenders on the city tower, and then go to the market to collect mules and horses, the more the better, I will wait to meet in the granary in the city!" Huang Yi, take your people straight to the West City Gate, I want you to solve the West City Gate defenders in the shortest possible time and firmly control them, wait for my military order! ”

"Order!" Huang Yi agreed, and immediately put on fifty cavalry and rushed to the main street in the city, and suddenly the sound of horses' hooves sounded.

Such a big movement was soon heard by the residents near the east gate, who did not dare to light the lamp, and hid under the bed with their futon and shivered.

Qin Feng immediately summoned the remaining nearly 200 men and horses and shouted: "Listen to the soldiers, the purpose of our attack on the city tonight is to grab grain, the location is the granary of Lujiang County, no one is allowed to disturb the people, no one is allowed to break into the people's homes and street shops to loot, if there are those who do not obey the order, behead!" ”

"Obey!" The bandits agreed with a bang.

Qin Feng pulled out a Jiangdong Army prisoner, "You, take me to the granary in the city, when you get to the ground, I will spare your life, if you dare to play tricks on me, I will definitely break your body into pieces!" Walk! ”

"The villain doesn't dare, the villain is willing to lead the way for the general!"

Following Qin Feng, the two hundred bandits are basically all riding horses, these people can be said to be the main force of this bandits, although they have evolved into bandits in recent years, but their combat skills have not been lost, and they are even stronger in riding, riding and archery, and riding battles, but the military discipline is scattered.

Under the purge and leadership of Qin Feng, these two hundred cavalry quickly rushed to the granary in the city.

Along the way, I met several groups of county officials who were patrolling the night, and these county officials were so frightened that they scattered when they saw such a murderous cavalry team.

After a few miles in front of the team, Qin Feng, who was walking in front, found that the front was brightly lit, and the street seemed to be a very important building, so he immediately asked the Jiangdong Army prisoners: "Where is the front?" ”

The captive was afraid of death, and immediately replied: "It is the place where the generals and soldiers under the command of Liu Xun who held the captive!" ”