Chapter 5: When Dawn Breaks

A month after Jiangcheng was captured, Wang Zaishan, the general of the Southern Tour, led many soldiers and generals to sweep from the north to the south. Half a month ago, Wang Zaishan came to Shilipo, which was not far from Jiangcheng, and immediately ordered scouts to go to find out the enemy situation in Jiangcheng. The enemy army came by land, including their military rations, which were also transported by land, while Wang Zaishan and others entered the area around Jiangcheng by water.

The soldiers of the Yongge Dynasty continued to plunder and kill the people from the beginning of their entry into the city, and the city was in chaos, and the people were displaced, fleeing, and dying. Those who escaped, glad that they walked fast, and those who didn't have time to escape firmly believed that the court would come to rescue them.

The snow fell heavily in Jiangcheng, and except for the enemy soldiers holding weapons and martial law on the streets of Jiangcheng, the rest of the people were rushed by the soldiers of the Yongge Dynasty to do coolies. I saw many people gathered together, each holding a ploughing tool in his hand to dig a pit at the intersection of the three streets of Jiangcheng, and some people carried corpses from all directions in the city. Half of the corpses in the pit belong to ordinary people, which is shocking to watch.

During the short break at noon that day, many people gathered around to keep warm, the weather was freezing, many people were wearing thin clothes, and many people did not have shoes, and their feet were red from the cold. Everyone's clothes were tattered and dirty, there was no color in their eyes, and everyone was yellow and thin. A middle-aged man with a beard on his face shouted and whispered, "When is this day going to be a head!" A young man with a dirty face said, "I don't think I can last long like this." "Why don't we get out?" One person suggested to. "Run? How do you escape? Escaping is not yet captured. "Hey, it would be nice if the imperial court sent troops." Another lamented.

The bearded middle-aged man said firmly: "The imperial court must have sent troops, but I don't know how to send the general." At that moment, the thin man, who had stood outside a small group of people and had not spoken, said, "We can really escape." Everyone looked at the person who spoke, and they all felt strange. The bearded middle-aged man said, "This brother is very good-looking? Was it just found out? ”

The thin man did not answer, but said to himself: "We can really try, and if we can escape, it depends on whether the brothers believe me or not." "Seriously, what do you mean by that?" The bearded middle-aged man stood up and asked, "To tell you the truth, I am a scout sent by the imperial court, and our army is now in Shilipo, and I only came in this morning." The bearded middle-aged man looked at the thin man in disbelief. The thin man reluctantly took out his scout token, and the bearded middle-aged man took it and looked at it carefully.

"How about Brother Liu, is it true?" Among the people, only this bearded man from the military had ever seen the scout order. "It's true." The bearded middle-aged man gave the token back to the thin man. "You're from the military?" The thin man looked at the bearded middle-aged man in surprise. "The villain has been lucky enough to go to the battlefield a few times." "That's good, now I'll give you a task, do you dare to do it." The bearded middle-aged man looked solemn: "You only care about things." ”

"I want you to quietly contact all the people who want to resist, and when our army pretends to attack the city, create chaos in the city, and open the city gates at a critical time, can you do it?" "No problem, I'm sure to get the job done." "In three days, we will launch an attack on Jiangcheng, by the way, what's your name?" "My name is Liu Goudan." The bearded middle-aged man grinned and touched his head.

Suddenly, an enemy sergeant shouted: "Everyone keep working." When everyone disbanded, the bearded middle-aged man said to the few people who had just complained: "You also heard it just now, don't show it." "I know Brother Liu" "Don't worry, Brother Liu." ”

In the next two days, Liu Goudan never saw the thin man again, and he knew that this person would definitely go to report the news. Sure enough, as the scout said, the army has been constantly coming to harass the enemy troops in Jiangcheng for the past two days, making them physically and mentally exhausted. Liu Goudan has also occasionally led the people to make trouble in the past two days, which is nothing more than a small trouble without food or clothing, and the big ones don't dare, because these beasts are really good at killing. Due to the constant harassment of Wang Zaishan's people, the enemy soldiers did not have much energy to manage these people.

Liu Goudan and the others also quietly hid a lot of farm tools, and dug a hole in the corner of the north city for two consecutive nights, so that they could spread the enemy's movements at any time. In the early hours of that morning, before dawn, they were woken up and told to assemble at the pit. Liu Goudan stood outside the dilapidated house, dazed, and heard the enemy soldiers not far away complaining: "Why do you say that it is such a cold day, let us wake up these cheap breeds?" Another soldier rubbed his hands together and said, "I heard that Wang Zaishan is coming with an army, and we are leaving here." "The king is in the mountains? Is it the son of that king? "Otherwise, there is still that king in the mountain." The soldier glanced at the soldier angrily.

"Then there's no need to call these guys, let's just leave." "Remember the pit we dug?" "Remember, isn't that for burying corpses?" "I heard that the general is going to bury all the people in it." "Ahh Liu Goudan woke up in an instant, and immediately rushed back to the broken house. "Erdan, Erdan, where's it?" "Brother Liu, what's wrong here?" A young man walked out of the backyard with his pants in his hand. "Now go out of the hole in the north corner of the city, and tell our army that the enemy will soon withdraw, and bury all the people in the city alive, in the pit we dug that day." Erdan was stunned when he heard the news, and the others were also stunned.

"Don't go yet." Liu Goudan kicked Erdan's buttocks, and Erdan ran away. "Brothers, the moment of life and death is coming, copy the guys, you go and inform the other brothers, be quick." A soldier outside shouted, "Why is it so slow, do you want to die?" Then he walked in scolding, and as soon as he entered the dilapidated house, he was knocked to death by Liu Goudan's hoe. Another soldier saw that his companion had not returned, and walked over. As soon as his left foot stepped in, a hoe appeared in front of him and quickly enlarged in front of him, and the poor two soldiers were directly knocked out of the head by Liu Goudan.

After a while, the dilapidated house with wind leaks on all sides gathered fifty or sixty people, a few of whom were holding farm tools, most of them wooden sticks that they had picked up casually. Someone shouted: "Brother Liu, what do you say, we listen to you." "Time is pressing, I'll make a long story short, we're going to take the city gate in a while, and I won't hide it from you, this life will definitely die, if you are afraid, quit now." The scene suddenly quieted down, no one spoke, Liu Goudan continued: "I, Liu Goudan, was born in the military, a rough man, I don't understand the big truth or anything, but I know that there is revenge and revenge, killing so many of us, just let them go?" What's more, they want to bury us alive tonight, and they don't resist or are they not leading? Suddenly, someone shouted, "Fuck these brutes." ”

Ten miles of slope, a young man dressed in tatters was tied in by two sergeants. "General Yu, this person has just been captured by us, and he said that he came out of Jiangcheng and has important information." Wang Zaishan stood up: "Oh? Untie him. Then he said, "Tell me what you know, young man." Erdan was excited: "The enemy troops in the city are going to evacuate, and they will bury all our people alive." "But conclusive news?" As soon as Wang Zaishan heard the news, he was not calm, "I know your king scout. "Come, bring in the king's scouts." Soon the king scout walked in, "General, you are looking for me." Just about to salute, Wang Zaishan waved his hand impatiently: "Okay, okay, see if you know this young man." The king scout looked at the situation and wondered, "Hey, why are you here?" Isn't it dawn to get in touch again? "Brother Wang, the people in the city are going to flee, they plan to bury us all alive tonight, Brother Liu, they are ready to receive you."

Wang Zaishan was now sure of the accuracy of this news, and shouted loudly: "The whole army is assembled." The quiet barracks immediately became noisy.

In the city, Liu Goudan heard that there was a lot of noise at the south city gate, so he realized that Erdan had successfully reported the news, and when he went out and saw the enemy troops running around on the street, Liu Goudan turned around and shouted: "Brothers, follow me." "A crowd rushed to the city gates." What people, stop" The enemy army at the city gate found Liu Goudan and them, and the enemy soldiers rushed up with weapons in their hands. Liu Goudan shouted: "Iron pillar and iron pillar, take our pot lid and put it in front, and the people behind will follow, don't mess up the formation." ”

The enemy defenders at the city gate fired arrows at Liu Goudan and them, and they discussed it in advance, divided into four waves of people, and the people in front of each wave had to hold something like a shield to block the enemy's arrows, so there was this scene. Except for some nervous ones that were shot in the legs, there were no casualties. The enemy found that the arrows didn't work, so they directly gathered thirty soldiers and rushed over with spears in hand, after all, Liu Goudan was mostly ordinary people, his combat ability was not good, and his reaction was slow, and many people were killed in a short time. Liu Goudan used the hoe in his hand to dig at the neck of a soldier, and the soldier's neck suddenly spurted blood.

Liu Goudan glanced back and found that more than half of the dead and wounded were killed, and shouted: "Brothers, the city gate is in front of us, and we are about to succeed." The crowd rushed forward as if they were crazy, and some of them used wood for those who had farm tools, and some of them picked up the weapons of the dead soldiers and poked them back and forth. Liu Goudan and they came to the city gate as they wished, and then the enemy guards at the city gate discovered the abnormal changes at the city gate, and immediately withdrew dozens of people from the city wall, and surrounded Liu Goudan and more than a dozen of them.

One of the enemy lieutenants said that they were killed. At this time, Liu Goudan couldn't care about the enemy behind him, he knew that when the city gate was opened, they would have hope for life. turned around and went to open the door, the enemy behind him stepped forward and slashed down behind Liu Goudan, Liu Goudan instantly stopped opening the door with both hands, and the whole person shrank down to avoid the knife, and then came to remember the yin legs, the soldier covered his lower body with both hands, and wailed in pain on the ground. Liu Goudan turned around and continued to open the city gate, and the iron pillar was blocked behind Liu Goudan, but he could only resist meaninglessly, and he couldn't defeat the enemy at all. The iron pillar was cut to the ground, and Liu Goudan only noticed a group of people when he came, and now only he and the iron pillar were left, and the iron pillar was still lying on the ground and moaning at this time.

After a while, Liu Goudan was stabbed twice in the back, and the wound was shocking. Outside the city, Wang Zaishan led his subordinates to successfully reach the city, "Someone came to the stake and hit it." The enemy knew that the general trend had gone, and they all stopped the siege of Liu Goudan, many people turned around and fled, and a soldier came up to plan to kill Liu Goudan, but was suddenly hugged by the iron pillar on the ground, and the blood in the iron pillar's mouth kept remaining, and shouted with all his might: "Brother Liu... Open the door... They're going to run. If you.. I also had the opportunity to see my mother and tell him that the child was not filial. When he looked at the door again, he found that a group of sergeants had rushed in, and an arrow flew over, hitting the soldier's eyebrow.

Wang Zaishan was paralyzed on the ground, covered in blood, looking at the iron pillar not far away, his fists clenched tightly. The battle began suddenly, and it didn't last long, and it wasn't even dawn. Liu Goudan sat at the city gate, looking at the slightly bright sun in the distance, the sun was shining on the city gate, Liu Goudan smiled happily, and shouted with all his might: "It's dawn." ”

The enemy army didn't expect Wang Zaishan to know about their plan, and Wang was caught off guard by Wang Zaishan's song, so they could only flee for their lives at this time. When they reached the north of the city gate and found more soldiers waiting for them, they were already desperate, and they all put down their weapons, knelt down and surrendered. There were people in the city to help, and they came to join forces with each other, and they took Jiangcheng after a while. The enemy general was captured alive, and Wang Zaishan looked at the unruly appearance of the enemy general and cut him down with a knife. The adjutant general of the enemy army shouted in disbelief: "We surrendered, why do we still kill." Wang Zaishan said coldly: "Have you spared our people? He turned his head to his adjutant and said, "Whether you surrender or not, you will be beheaded to sacrifice the spirits of An County Ling and others." ”

A moment later, in the former county mansion, Liu Goudan was lying weakly in the hall, he was carried back, and there was Erdan here, and Erdan was taking care of him. The brothers who seized the city gate with him are all dead, and only him and the second egg are left. After a while, Wang Zaishan walked in and looked at Liu Goudan and said, "You are Liu Goudan?" Very brave, we were able to capture these enemies smoothly this time, or rely on your news, I will write to ask for credit for you" Liu Goudan bowed and saluted: "The villain is officially Liu Goudan, thank you General, but there are still a few brothers and family members who are still there, can I exchange this merit for money for them?" Wang Zaishan was silent for a while and said, "Okay, are you still willing to return to the army?" Liu Goudan was stunned for a while. Then he said: "General Xie is kind, I can't fight when I go back when I'm older, and there is an old lady in Tiezhu's family, I promised him to take care of his mother, but this young man can, and he is clever" "Okay, the general doesn't force you, young man, are you willing to join the army?" Liu Goudan, who was lying down, kicked the second egg who was in a daze with his foot, and the second egg reacted: "I am willing, I am willing." Thank you general, thank you general."

"The king scouts you are acquainted with them, and you will arrange for the young man to be brought with you. If I say ugly things with my fists, and if I am a soldier under my hands, I cannot be afraid of death, I cannot retreat from battle, I cannot bully the people, and those who violate it will be executed. "Obey the general."

In the capital, a eunuch came in in a hurry with a document in his hand, and knelt down: "Your Majesty, the general of the Southern Tour has received good news, and the enemy army in Jiangcheng has been completely annihilated by our army." General Wang hoped that His Majesty would send officials to rectify Jiangcheng. After speaking, he held the paperwork in both hands and raised it above his head. Zhou Dan received the news and smiled happily: "Okay, it is worthy of the general I appointed." ”

Three days later, in Wuling County, on the street, there was a notice posted quickly. There were all people around, but no one dared to come forward and ask, and when the catch was gone, everyone gathered around the notice and pointed, and someone asked, "What are these, are there any literate people?" On this day, Jiang Pan and Li Yanqiu went home from the church, and the two were discussing a poem called "Wandering Ziyin" that they learned today. Li Yanqiu said: "Jiangban, have you seen your mother? Jiang Pan said: "I haven't seen it, I heard my father say that my mother died when I was born." "Then do you miss your mother?" "I think I am very envious every time I see other people's mothers taking their children to the street." "Then did Uncle Jiang tell you about your mother?" "No, I heard my father say that my mother is a great beauty."

The two saw a lot of people surrounding something, and the two children were curious to squeeze in. Helplessly, the strength is small, and the stunned can't squeeze in. Jiang Pan shouted: "Let me go, I know the words." Everyone looked back and saw two cleanly dressed little boys, both carrying cotton bags, indeed like students in the school.

Someone said, "Little brother, show us what is written on it." Then everyone got out of the way and let Li Yanqiu and Jiang Pan in. Li Yanqiu stood still and looked at the notice, and read: "General Wang Zaishan was ordered to recover Jiangcheng, and the enemy army was completely annihilated by our court, and the saint was happy, so the curfew was lifted tonight." "So there's no curfew tonight?" "Yes, uncle." Li Yanqiu replied. Everyone cheered instantly, one was to hear the news of Jiangcheng's recovery, and the other was to play casually tonight.

Jiang Pan and Li Yanqiu said as they walked: "Do you think we will still be in Jiangcheng, Yan Qiu?" "Maybe maybe I won't go back, isn't it good here." Li Yanqiu looked at the riverside suspiciously. "But I always think about Jiangcheng, I dream of it, I want to go to my mother's grave to see." Li Yanqiu didn't speak, lowered his head and continued to walk, Jiang Pan was also thinking about things, and was silent.

In the evening, Jiang Pan told Jiang Da Hammer about today's events, "You said that the imperial court recovered Jiangcheng?" "Yes, Dad" "The imperial court can be regarded as having a little conscience, and it is not in vain that Anxian County ordered to die so miserably." "Dad, are we going back to Jiangcheng?" I want to go to my mother's grave to see, Dad, let's go back and take care of it. Jiang Dazhui sighed heavily: "Okay, my father misses your mother too, but I have to go back after a while, and Jiangcheng is in chaos at this time." "Listen to Daddy." Jiang Dazhui's tone suddenly changed: "Come, let me hear if your kid endorses today?" Jiang Pan rolled his eyes: "You can't understand it, you don't know if my endorsement is right or wrong?" "Oops, you kid dare to talk back, and your ass is itching again?" After speaking, he raised his hand, and Jiang Pan ran outside with a smoke and shouted, "Dad, you will beat me." "It's only natural for Lao Tzu to beat cubs." "If you still want to learn kung fu, give me an endorsement." Jiang Pan stood outside the door, reciting aloud what he had learned in the school today.

In this month, Jiang Pan studied very seriously, and completed his homework in the school every day, and Jiang Da Hammer promised Jiang Pan that as long as he gave Jiang Pan the book that was not written and memorized, Jiang Da Hammer would hand him over to practice martial arts. Although Jiang Pan was very reluctant, because he had already endorsed the book in the school, and he would have to endorse it when he came back at night. But there is no way, if he doesn't endorse him, Lao Tzu refuses to teach him martial arts.

Every night, Jiangban will light a lamp, take out the book given to him by Jiang Da Hammer, open it to recognize and memorize, in just one month, Jiangban has made rapid progress and knows a lot of words. He has memorized this book for three years, but he doesn't know much about the content, "What is the same." Jiang Pan muttered, Jiang Pan stared at the book carefully back and forth, but he didn't see anything, and wondered: "Why did Dad ask me to carry this." I don't understand, "Forget it, he'll teach me kung fu anyway, this shouldn't be a lie." ”

It was so quiet that the night was silent, the wind was blowing outside, the snow was falling, and the windows were whining, like a person crying in the night. The light was still on in the room by the river, and Jiang Dazhui quietly came to the window by the river, and saw that his son was looking intently at the book he gave, laughing. Then he opened his legs and walked to his room satisfied.