Time flies, and the Spring Festival of Jiayou's ten years passed quietly unconsciously.

Due to the sudden rebellion in Lianghuai, the surrounding prefectures and counties were in danger, and the governors of various prefectures and counties called on the big households in their counties to contribute money and grain, recruit village warriors, and train them to prepare for the attack of the rebels.

The local gentry either fled into the city or fled to the surrounding area to avoid the anti-thieves.

Gu Er has been rushing to the Wuwei Army for a while, and he is temporarily in charge of the Wuwei Army with the position of Marquis of the Wuwei Army.

However, Xie Bingde has already folded the main force of the Wuwei Army in Haozhou, and now the Wuwei Army has only more than 1,000 people left.

Gu Er took the order and the official seal, called on the squires to contribute money and grain in the territory of the Wuwei Army, and recruited more than 1,000 villagers, plus some defeated generals who collected the remnants of the fleeing and returned from Haozhou, a total of 3,000 soldiers, including 2,500 regular soldiers, 500 auxiliary soldiers, and 500 people's husbands, collected grain, grass and ordnance on the spot, and slowly went north in the direction of Haozhou while training.

The army traveled lightly, passed through Chao County, bypassed Chaohu Lake, and stopped at Tuogao Town on the north side of Chaohu Lake, Tuogao Town is located in the northernmost part of the Wuwei Army, and can enter Luzhou in the west and Hezhou in the east.

Gu Er's army was stationed in Tuogao, and he was not in a hurry to rush to Luzhou to fight with the anti-thieves who were attacking Luzhou, but instead trained his troops on the spot.

It's not that Gu Er is unwilling to fight immediately, it's really that the soldiers under his command are not helpful, most of the elite of the Wuwei Army were taken away by Xie Bingde, and they were lost in the battle with the anti-thieves, and the rest were either old and weak or the townsmen who Gu Er had just recruited.

If the anti-thieves just started to make trouble, these townsmen may not be useless, but now the anti-thieves have been fighting with the official army for several months, the anti-thieves have the upper hand, and even the Wuwei army has been defeated by them, and after the commander Xie Bingde was captured, his head was also cut off and used to sacrifice the flag.

Now that the enemy is strong and I am weak, how dare Gu Er take the enemy lightly.

Fortunately, with the support of the entire Wuwei Army, there is no need to worry about the problem of grain and grass, and the soldiers' cotton clothes and quilts are also complete.

On the night of the 27th day of the lunar month, heavy snow fell.

In the military tent, the lights were bright, and Gu Er, who was dressed in military uniform, sat in front of the table, carefully looking at the map on the table with the help of the oil lamp, his brows furrowed slightly.

"Report!" Suddenly, a familiar voice came from outside.

"Enter!" Gu Er's eyebrows raised slightly, and his gaze also turned to the entrance of the camp tent, and he hurriedly said loudly.

The curtain was lifted, and the stone dressed in coarse linen clothes untied the hat on his head, patted the snowflakes on his body, walked quickly in front of Gu Er, and arched his hand: "Yuyu Hou, in the early hours of this morning, a large number of thieves have been mobilized in Shenxian County and Yong'an Town, and the direction of their march is towards Luzhou." ”

"How many people did Shen County dispatch?" Gu Er hurriedly asked.

"At least five thousand!" Stone said calmly.

Gu Er asked again, "Can you see clearly?" ”

"The last general can see clearly, the thief army stretches for miles!" Stone replied in the affirmative.

Most of Gu Er's subordinates are new troops, and the scouts are quite demanding, so Gu Er can only let Shi Shi and a few veterans brought from Quanzhou personally lead the team, disguised and disguised to investigate the movements of the anti-thieves.

"The thief army has just taken Shen County for half a month, Shen County is a middle county, there are only two thousand households, at most more than 10,000 people, no more than 1,000 young and strong, 6,000 thief army, counting the people they have levied and bewitched in Shen County, at most 8,000 people, and now they have sent 5,000 men and horses, so the thief army in Shen County is no more than 3,000 people at most?"

Gu Er looked at the map and analyzed it calmly.

"The whole territory of Haozhou fell, the thief army did not go north, but went west to the south, and now occupies the three counties of Cai, Shouchun and Anfeng, Shouzhou has gone nearly half, they want to swallow Luzhou and Hefei, and then slowly eat away at the entire Huainan West Road, and then go west to Jinghu, hold the granary of Jinghu in your hands, back to Bashu, then go south to the south of the Yangtze River, Guangnan two roads, to the north is Jingxi, Qinfeng ······"

As he spoke, Gu Er frowned, his eyes were a little surprised, if he really did what he thought, then there was really something about this group of anti-thieves.

Although the Great Song Dynasty and Liaoxia have been truces for many years, there are many frictions in the frontiers, and the Western Xia often jumps up and down, and these two tiger and wolf countries are both strong, and the thieves do not want to attack Gyeonggi, but start from Lianghuai and go all the way to the south, clearly wanting to use the imperial court as a gunman, so that the imperial court can block the pressure from the west and the north.

No matter what the strength of this group of anti-thieves is, if they really think so, then the idea is indeed feasible.

Maybe in Jinghu, Bashu, Jiangnan and other places, there have already been people who rebel against thieves, and when the time comes, they will rise up······

However, this idea only flashed in Gu Er's mind, and was quickly vetoed, today's officials are kind and generous, and during their reign for decades, they have lightly paid for their meager endowments, vigorously developed people's livelihood, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment.

The government and the opposition still respect and approve of the official family, and now this gang of thieves just took advantage of the drought in Haozhou to cause a locust plague, and the local squires deceived their superiors and took the opportunity to exploit them, which made the people's resentment boil and gave the thieves an opportunity to take advantage of it.

However, it is not common for the rest of the officials to rule the Qingming land, but the people are ignorant and easy to be bewitched by thieves......

Thinking in his heart, Gu Er also slowly calmed down, his eyes flickered, thinking about the strategy of breaking the enemy.

The next day, the scouts reported again, and the anti-thief army had driven to a place thirty miles away from Luzhou City and stationed there.

Gu Er immediately called the stone, "Order, the whole army is ready to go, let the leader of the gang prepare the meal, and the soldiers are full of spirits, ready to rush to Luzhou at any time!" ”

"The last general obeys!" The stone bowed and withdrew.

Now that the Wuwei Army has just been reorganized, Gu Er is a newcomer, and there are few people available under him, so naturally he can only rely on the 'elite' brought from Quanzhou, and the stone is naturally the cronie of Gu Er's cronies.

In the early morning of the 29th of the lunar month, the sky will be bright, seeing that Chinese New Year's Eve is approaching and the Spring Festival is approaching, but all the prefectures and counties in Luzhou are heavily guarded, and the city gates will be locked as soon as night is over, a curfew will be imposed, and the people will not be allowed to go to the streets.

The defenders on the tower had been on guard all night, cold and hungry, and seeing that the sky was about to dawn, and finally it was time to change shifts, and there was a rare smile on their almost frozen faces.

On the edge of the battlements, on the side of the brazier, several soldiers in rudimentary leather armor and carrying spears crowded together, relying on each other's body temperature and the brazier in front of them to dispel the biting cold.

The sky has just been white, and the defenders who have been on duty all night on the city wall are already physically and mentally exhausted, and it is the most tiring time, if it is not for the cold weather, I am afraid that they have already taken a nap at this time.

An old sergeant with gray temples, leaning on the fire and keeping watch all night, was awakened by a strong urge to urinate, got up and was about to find a place to relieve himself, and saw the dense city under the city, like a locust crossing the general scene, at first he was a little unimpressed, thinking that it was a dream, but suddenly a cold wind blew in his face, and the frozen old man shivered, and most of his sleepiness went away.

Then he reacted suddenly, first frowned, took out a torch from the brazier in confusion, poked his head out of the battlement, and looked out of the city with the torch, before he could see clearly, only the whistling sound of the wind suddenly sounded, and in the confusion of the old pawn, a feathered arrow was inserted into his throat with unmistakable precision.

The old pawn's eyes widened suddenly, and he reached out in disbelief to grab the feather arrow, but his throat was pierced by an arrow, and his whole body seemed to be soaked in the mud, and he couldn't use his strength at all, and the blood gushed out from the blood groove broken by the arrow.

"Lao Xing! Lao Xing! ”

Seeing that the old man had not come back for a long time, the companion of the fire couldn't help but shout: "It can't be that the weather is too cold, let's freeze the guy!" ”

As soon as these words came out, several companions who were still napping next to them woke up one after another, and they also laughed and ridiculed the old pawn.

A sharp-eyed man saw the old pawn lying on the battlements without moving, and faintly felt that something was wrong, so he got up to check, and shouted the name of the old pawn as he walked.

"Lao Xing! Lao Xing! ”

"Won't you be too sleepy to fall asleep here?"

Seeing that the old pawn did not react, the sergeant frowned, patted the old pawn a few times, but there was no response, and suddenly felt that something was more and more wrong, and pulled the old pawn back from the battlement, and then saw the feather arrow stuck in the old pawn's neck, and naturally saw the blood lying all over the battlement.

"Lao Xing is dead!"

"Enemy attack!"

"Enemy attack!"

The sergeant shouted as he looked down into the city in horror, only to see the fields shrouded in night, as if a black tide was surging all over the sky!

The sergeant's shouting immediately woke up his companions around him, and everyone gathered around, seeing Lao Xing's tragic situation, when even if someone rushed to the drum tower, someone picked up the gong, rang it vigorously, and shouted loudly, "Enemy attack!" ”

Listening to the movement from the city wall, the anti-thief army under the city was no longer hidden, and the anti-thief leader drew his long knife and raised his arms and shouted: "Kill!" ”

Suddenly there was a deafening shout of killing under the city, and the thief army wrapped in black turbans, dressed in various colors, and with various blades, shouted, carrying ladders and pushing the hammer to rush to the city wall.

The soldiers who patrolled the night vigil in the city flocked to the battlements, and the sleeping soldiers were awakened one by one, and a big battle was about to break out!

I don't know when the sky has dawned, the gatehouse is full of feathered arrows, the road on the city wall is also full of scattered feather arrows, the mottled city wall is stained with blood, the city wall is covered with corpses, the first wave of anti-thieves attack ended in failure, but the defenders on the city wall also paid a heavy price.

Dozens of miles away, behind a mountain col, a big flag of Gu Zi hunted in the cold wind.

On the snow-covered earth, the sergeants with hoods, leather armor, swords and guns, and bows and arrows on their backs sat on the ground, resting, but the overall military government was not dispersed.

Gu Er held the map, looked at the surrounding terrain, and confirmed his position with the guide.

In the howling cold wind, a scout beat his horse and galloped back, all the way to Gu Er's body before reining in his horse and stopping.

"General, the first siege of the thief army has ended, and both sides have suffered heavy losses, and now a large number of people and horses of the anti-thief army are mobilizing, and it seems that they are organizing a second wave of attacks."

"Probe!" Gu Er said in a deep voice.

"No!"

The scout gave up his command, turned on his horse again, and galloped away in the direction he had come.

"General, the thief army is powerful, if we rush up, I'm afraid we won't be able to bargain!" The stone next to him said.

"Who said we're going to fight this gang of thieves!" Gu Er glanced at the stone and said lightly.

"Tell the brothers, rest for another cup of tea, and after a cup of tea, pull out the camp!"

"General, where are we going?" Stone asked.

Gu Er looked at the northwest direction and said, "Shen County!" ”

Shishi's eyes suddenly lit up, and he immediately gave a thumbs up: "Wai Wei to save Zhao, the general is really tall!" ”

Gu Er beckoned at the stone and said, "Come here!" ”

Shi hurriedly came up, Gu Er whispered a few words in Shi Shi's ear, Shi Shi's expression couldn't help but change, and then he nodded, revealing admiration: "It is worthy of being a general, the last general will go!" ”

After a cup of tea, the army is ready again!

Half a day later, outside Shen County, the banner of Gu Zi was waving in the wind, the stone was dressed in military uniform, sitting on the high-headed horse, drawing a knife and waving, and suddenly the drum meditated, the trumpet sounded more than once, and the two thousand foot soldiers immediately pushed the ladder and the hammer of the city, and pushed the well fence with a solid shield, and slowly rushed to the city wall like a tide.

The original garrison of the thieves in Shen County was about 6,000 people, plus the manpower recruited in Shen County, it was only a lot of money, and now 5,000 troops were sent to attack Luzhou, these 5,000 must be the elite of the thief army, and those who stayed in Shen County were either new troops or old and weak.

Some of them have never even been on the battlefield, and Gu Er is determined to do this, so he let Shi lead two thousand soldiers and horses to attack.

However, although the anti-thieves left behind in Shen County were not elite, Shi with soldiers and horses was also not elite, and Shi followed Gu Er's instructions to let the four battalions under his command attack in turn, not giving the defenders in the city a chance to breathe.

However, in just one day, he climbed the city wall several times, almost broke through the city, killed hundreds of thieves, and his own injuries or losses added up to more than 100 people.

In the evening, outside the city of Luzhou, in the anti-thief camp, the anti-thief army that had attacked Luzhou for a whole day was also a little tired, and the anti-thief master listened to the messenger's words and shot the case in disbelief.

"What? The official army is attacking Shen County? The lord couldn't believe his ears: "Where are the officers and soldiers?" ”

The messenger said with a frightened face: "The official army is playing the banner of the Wuwei Army, hanging the flag of Gu Zishuai, not to mention there are thousands of men and horses, all kinds of siege equipment, if it is not for the general to order people to block the city gate, I am afraid that the city will be broken today." ”

"Wasn't the Wuwei Army defeated by us? Their commander, surnamed Xie, had his head cut off by Lao Tzu, where did the thousands of men come from? Do you see it clearly? ”

"It's really a Wuwei army, and those thousands of men and horses are young and strong, and they are all not afraid of death, pushing the high chariot, the officers and soldiers are standing on the high platform on the chariot, and shoot the brothers on our city wall with the crossbow of the divine arm, our bows and arrows are not as good as the official army, they can only be pressed and beaten by them, and in the future, our old brothers have lost more than 100."

"Well bar? Divine Arm Crossbow? The main general couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this: "Could it be the forbidden army under the banner of Wuwei?" ”

(End of chapter)