In the blink of an eye, some time passed, and Tong Guan's military reports continued intermittently.

On the morning of this day, another military report arrived, and Yuezhou, the capital of eastern Zhejiang, was recovered.

But Tong Guan did not find any trace of Fang La, and suspected that Fang La was still on the side of Muzhou, or even retreated to the place where the incident occurred.

Zhao Ta thought for a moment, and now only Chuzhou and Taizhou are left in eastern Zhejiang, but these two states are not a big city, and there are few thieves in them, and it is a matter of day and night to recover.

Although Tong Guan's side is like a bamboo, Muzhou at this end has not been broken for a long time.

Muzhou is difficult to attack, and it is one thing that there are many generals and generals, and it is another aspect that the Western Army is slack and has no fighting spirit.

Although these border troops were well-armed and well-trained, they were not willing to fight far from the northwest.

For the ordinary officers and men of the Western Army, although the border passes are not as prosperous as those in the south of the Yangtze River, there are Goolan brothels and gambling caves that they are familiar with, and they are naturally unwilling to give up the wine waves of their good sisters, throw away the dice and shake cups that they are accustomed to, and fight with the rebel bandits.

At the beginning, after they received the order from the imperial court, even though they were urged by the ministers and commanders, they still found all kinds of excuses to delay and stayed at the border for several days.

In the fierce battle in Suzhou before, it was better to have Tong Guan staring at it, after all, Tong Guan had a very high prestige in the Western Army, but now that Tong Guan left Liu Yanqing, more than 20,000 people immediately complained bitterly.

Liu Yanqing is the head of the soldiers and horses of the Yanyan Road, and he is the commander of his own side, and these Western troops are not very afraid of such things.

And if the rewards and the like can keep up, and there is money to earn face, it will not be like this, but after the war in Suzhou, in addition to the loss, there is no silver money at all, so they hurriedly march to Hangzhou, and it is strange not to complain.

Liu Yanqing doesn't have a good way to deal with them at the moment, they all belong to the Western Army, and they can't kill Liwei, and he has few soldiers, no matter how lazy and lazy he is, where can he attack Xiamuzhou.

He had no choice but to write a letter to Zhao Ta for advice, and in addition to respectfully asking for advice, he also had some intention of borrowing money.

Zhao Ta was also a little scratching his head about this, he could naturally guess the reason, but he couldn't let his own family take money to reward the Western Army, right?

This money will not be reimbursed to him by the imperial court, in fact, although Emperor Daojun said generously and openly in the Golden Palace that day, but how much money is in the treasury Zhao Ta knows very well, and if he really wants to follow the reward method that Emperor Daojun said, I am afraid that in the end, in addition to giving the official, the others can only be partially or directly in arrears.

Moreover, Emperor Daojun said that when it comes to meritorious deeds, not everyone has a reward for every soldier, so it is necessary to refer to the merit book.

At present, Liu Yanqing sells miserably, but once he takes out this money, there is no place to ask for it, and the court has no money for him, so why should the Western Army ask for it? He is a royal family, and he is fighting for Zhao Song Jiangshan Sheji, why do you want it then?

What's more, the Western Army's strategy is not as thin as those of the ministers of the two prefectures, and they are all masters who take off their armor and robes one by one and dare to roll and sprinkle all over the ground.

Zhao Ta was helpless, so he could only pretend to be stupid and didn't understand Liu Yanqing's implication, but he gave him an idea, asking him to surround Wei and attack Zhao, attack the east and the west, and secretly raid and take Shezhou first.

After taking Shezhou, it is estimated that Tong Guan's side will also be determined by the war, when the thief army has the remaining lonely city, the army's heart will inevitably be in chaos, and then the attack on the heart is the best plan, the soldiers shouted demagogic words, and threw arrows into the city, and Muzhou will be broken for a long time.

After he replied to the letter, Liu Yanqing naturally did so, repaired the plank road, secretly crossed Chencang, and attacked Shezhou, and sure enough, it only took a day or two to defeat Shezhou, and then the news was publicized in front of Muzhou City......

Zhao Ta went to the guest room to eat in the evening, and said when he entered the door: "Xiuniang, Shezhou has recovered, you can go home and take a look." ”

Zhu Xiuniang looked at him and said for a moment: "You let me go home?" ”

Zhao Tan frowned: "How can you let yourself go back, now there is no one in the Zhu family in Jiangnan, and there is a military disaster in Shezhou, and the empty house compound, naturally this king will accompany you." ”

Zhu Xiuniang sneered when she heard this, looked at his eyes, and showed a hint of ridicule.

Zhao Ta touched his chin: "After Fang La is calmed down, the bones of Lao Taishan and many clansmen will be migrated, and it is always good to return to the roots." ”

Hearing this, Zhu Xiuniang put away her sneering expression, became heavy, and did not say anything against it, sitting there in a daze.

Zhao Ta looked at her silently, turned around and said: "When you want to go back, let people inform me, otherwise after the thieves are completely pacified, I will take you back to Shezhou, and then let your brother who is a magistrate in Fujian come over to worship your ancestors." ”

Zhu Xiuniang stared at Zhao Ta when she heard this, but Zhao Ta stopped talking and walked out of the room slowly.

Zhu Xiuniang bit her lips lightly, and saw his back go away, and her slender and good-looking eyebrows were raised, if Zhao Ta said that she would do it, then when she saw her Zhu family brother, she would definitely tell him about it as it was!

Inform the clan brother Zhao Ta that he harmed the Zhu family and killed most of the scholars in the south of the Yangtze River, Zhao Ta is ruthless, wolf ambition, and full of evil, and the clan brother will definitely find a way to let the court know, let the world know, let Zhao Ta be pointed out by thousands of people, scolded by thousands of people, and die without a place to be buried.

She doesn't believe that no one in this world can punish Zhao Ta, the prince violates the law, and he is guilty of the same crime as the common people, Zhao Ta violates the law, and a hundred deaths, a thousand times is enough!

What she has to do now is to forbear, and not let Zhao Ta see that she wants to take revenge, otherwise it will be inappropriate to startle the snake and be guarded against by him.

But she can't take the initiative to get too close to him, Zhao Ta is cunning like a fox, more ferocious than a wolf, and if she disguises her acting too much, she will see her flaws, so it is best to continue to treat him so indifferently.

Where did Zhao Ta know that Zhu Xiuniang was careful at the moment, but the hatred of killing his father and destroying the clan was really not a common thing, this kind of thing may be like Hu Sanniang's reckless background, and her heart is not bright, and after being repeatedly persuaded and brainwashed, she may forget it for a while.

But it seems that Zhu Xiuniang, a wealthy gentleman, has read poetry and books since she was a child, that is, she knows history and understands the rise and fall, and she is familiar with half of the truth, where will she forget? Maybe he has all kinds of tricks in his heart, and ten kinds of conspiracies are going to deal with him.

Zhao Ta sighed as he walked, this is destined to be a protracted war, even if his family tears his face with the court one day, he is not afraid of anything, and he can have no scruples, this war without gunpowder may not end.

But he wasn't too worried, Zhu Xiuniang had no evidence, everything was speculated by her, even if she was asked to stand in front of the whole world and shout, who would believe it?

As for some conspiracy methods, isn't it a class in front of him......

After Shezhou was captured, Liu Yanqing reorganized his army to fight Muzhou again, but this time it was according to Zhao Ta's method, and all kinds of heart-attacking tactics were used, and the thief army in Muzhou was a little unable to hold on.

Originally, they all had the backing of several states in eastern Zhejiang, but now I heard that Tong Guan and his troops have all been recovered, and Shezhou here has also been lost, isn't there a lonely city left in Muzhou?

The defense was shaken, and the morale of the army was unstable.

And there is one more important thing at this moment, that is, the grain and grass in Muzhou City are empty.

Although Liu Yanqing's soldiers are few, even if the soldiers and horses led by Zhe Kecun and Yao Pingzhong are added, there are only more than 40,000 people, and the siege cannot be stopped, but even so, there is nowhere to replenish the grain and grass in Muzhou City.

No one brought them food! They don't have a place to raise food!

When the gentry fled from Muzhou, they burned all the grain they could not take away, shoveled all the green seedlings outside the city, and burned all the forage and livestock farms.

It's not that the gentry know any tactics of clearing the wilderness, but they hate these demon thieves and don't want to leave them a single thing, and would rather destroy them all than leave them a little.

After Fang La left Muzhou, part of the grain in the official warehouse was also burned by the defenders, and once raised grain from the people, which was naturally bought with money at that time, and the people also sold a lot of it to them, and these grains went with the army and did not stay in Muzhou.

Until the defeat of Hangzhou, the army was full of grain and grass, so he was able to survive with Tongguan in Suzhou for a long time.

However, Hangzhou was lost, there was no source of supply, Fang La's retreat was less and less, and then he was defeated in Muzhou, tens of thousands of people entered the city, and the pressure in the city increased greatly, and it was overstretched.

After Fang La fled into Muzhou with Fang Baihua, seeing that the situation was not good, he left some soldiers and horses and led the others to go back to Gangyuan directly.

There were probably more than 70,000 soldiers in the city, and they were all in panic at the moment.

Outside, the Song army kept shouting about the war in eastern Zhejiang, and they all said that all the other states had fallen, although these things were not known to be true or false, but they were shouting all the time, even if they were fake, they were anxious, not to mention that the Shezhou on the side was really lost, and the lips were cold and the soldiers were naturally panicked.

The daily decrease in rations also made the soldiers speculate that the city might run out of food, so they had some thoughts of fleeing, but the city gates were closed, and no one could get out.

When Fang La left, he left Chen Hoop Bucket and let him know about the military, but he was so anxious that he didn't know what to do.

A few days passed, and there was not much smoke in the city, and there was nothing to eat in the army......

On this day, Chen Hoop Bucket was depressed in his heart, climbed the city gate tower and overlooked the Yangtze River, only to see the depths of the river, the white fog was boundless, there was no fishing boat walking on the river, only the white gulls and waterfowl soared, hovering on the river surface, croaking and screaming.

Chen Hoop Bucket was worried, and the general Fang Jie came to the city and said: "Taishi, many soldiers below are hungry, some have died under the city, and some are dying, many people have nothing to eat, the leaves and bark have been stripped and stripped naked, and even used soil to satisfy hunger, why didn't Taishi order to kill the remaining war horses and distribute them to the soldiers to cook soup?" I managed to survive these two days, and as soon as the rescue of the Holy Father arrived, the danger was resolved. ”

Chen Hoop Bucket frowned when he heard this, when Fang La left, he said that he would go back to Gang Yuan to rectify it, and then send troops to transport grain and grass, but now it has been a long time, and neither people nor grain and grass have been seen, and even Shezhou has been lost.

As for other prefectures and counties in eastern Zhejiang, he guessed that it was likely that they were really attacked by the Song army, and it was difficult to say if they were lost, and Fang La might not be able to take care of Muzhou at this moment.

Chen hoop bucket full of worries went down to the city and went back to the house, walked around, walked to the stable and came to his own war horse, his horse, the snow practice is also white, there is no miscellaneous hair on the body, eight feet tall, head and tail are one zhang, and the end is a good horse.

Seeing the hoop bucket coming to the front, the horse doubled its spirit, and "Xi Yoyo" raised its head and roared, just like a dragon roaring and a tiger roaring, shaking its head and tail, and there was a tendency to leap and indulge.

Chen hoop bucket touched the horse's head with his hand caresses, the horse stretched out his tongue and touched his hand, Chen hoop bucket couldn't help thinking, really want to kill the horse to satisfy hunger? Although his own horses do not have to be killed, if all the horses in the army are killed, and the city is really broken and there are no mounts, will it be difficult for everyone else to escape except him and the generals?

Chen Hoop Bucket couldn't help sighing, looked at Fang Jie on the side and said, "Take me out to have a look." ”

Fang Jie led the way ahead, and walked around Muzhou City, just to see that many soldiers were so hungry that they couldn't sit against the wall, and watched them walk by, and then they stood up one by one.

When he went to the city again, he saw that there were people squatting under the wall to dig Guanyin soil to eat, Chen Hoop Bucket was sad, and his face was gloomy and he went to the stable in the army again.

The horseman who raised the horse seemed to have heard something before, and knelt down and said, "Taishi, you can't kill the horse, this horse has more credit than people!" ”

Chen hoop bucket glanced at him a few times, did not reply, but walked out of the stable in a trance, and suddenly a gust of wind blew, mixed with a strange smell of meat.

Chen hoop bucket looked at Fang Jie, Fang Jie was also puzzled, the two led the soldiers to follow the aroma to find it, and walked to a grass hut in a secluded place outside the camp, it turned out that more than a dozen soldiers were eating meat and drinking soup there.

When these soldiers saw Chen Hoop Bucket, they opened their mouths one by one, unable to speak, Chen Hoop Bucket wondered in his heart, there was nothing to eat in the city, where did these people get the meat?

He stepped forward and lifted the lid of the pot to see that it was sinking and floating with the boiling water.

Chen hoop bucket suddenly rushed to the top of his head: "Where did this meat come from?" Say it! ”

The soldiers hurriedly knelt down: "Master Yu, these two were not killed by us!" ”

Chen Hoop Bucket was immediately furious, and he pulled out his waist knife and scolded: "You dare, I will slaughter them first to warn the army!" ”

The soldiers behind him saw that they were going to kill these people, and they knelt down together to plead for mercy with a "hula" sound, and the food in front of them all bowed their heads and bowed their heads, and they did not justify, making a posture of stretching their necks and killing.

Chen hoop bucket looked at everyone again, one by one they were hungry and thin, and they were described as haggard, and they hadn't eaten a full meal in the past few days, and they were staggering, which was really pitiful.

He stomped his foot violently, turned around and left, and said to Fang Jie as he went: "Pass my military order, kill the horse!" ”

Fang Jie clenched his fists and led everyone to the stable in a hurry.

After killing the horse, the army had a few full meals, that is, even the horse bones were smashed and eaten, but then the war horses were eaten up, and the rescuers and grain and grass were still not heard.

Chen Hoop had no choice but to summon the generals to discuss the matter, and said: "There are no military rations in the city, the war horses have been killed, and there is no news of the Holy Father. ”

Most of the generals sighed, in fact, they had been waiting for Chen Hoop to say this, but at this moment, a pawn outside suddenly came in in a panic and reported: "Taishi, the guard of the south city gate suddenly opened the city gate and let the Song army enter the city!" ”

Chen Hoop was shocked when he heard this, and hurriedly stood up and gave an order: "Hurry up and let all the troops support Nancheng and drive the Song army out of the city." ”

Fang Jie hurriedly said on the side: "Taishi, the soldiers should abandon the city and open the door to escape, and the Taishi can take out all the wealth and silk in the city and scatter it to the soldiers, inspire the three armies to move forward, paralyze the Song army, and wait for Shen to divide the soldiers into several ways to desperately break through." Chen Hoop thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

When the soldiers in the city got this order, they also aroused some enthusiasm, and fought with the Song army on the edge of the southern city, but the Song army came with a full meal, but the soldiers defending the city were hungry, and there were no war horses at the moment, so they could only fight and retreat.

In the end, the defenders of the city were exhausted due to hunger and fatigue, more than 70,000 people were killed and wounded, and the corpses were clogged up in the streets and alleys, and the red blood gathered into a ditch, staining the streets of Nancheng.

The number of soldiers defending the city was sharply reduced, and the soldiers were hungry and tired, and finally dragged it to Shenshi, at this time Chen hoop barrel ordered, the city gates of all directions were opened, and the troops broke out in several ways.

I saw Fang Jie brandishing a halberd and shouting in front of people: "Fellow Holy Sect brothers, if you don't use your strength at this time, we will all die and have no place to be buried!" ”

Chen Hoop Bucket led the generals in the rear to lift their spirits, each with a sword, and killed outside the city together.

He is a grandmaster, strong in martial arts, although he can't turn the tide of the battle, but he can still do it by killing out of the encirclement, but the soldiers who followed him have no good luck, and now only the generals have left war horses, and there are no cavalry, these soldiers are running away, while abandoning the wealth and silk all the way.

The Western Army of the Song Army suddenly had red eyes when they saw such a scene, they came all the way, and they never saw oil and water, they were busy fighting for gold and silver treasures at the moment, and they had no intention of chasing, even if Liu Yanqing waved the horsewhip and whipped, he couldn't stop drinking.

Chen hoop bucket led the generals to escape from Muzhou, and after crossing several mountains, they ran straight in the direction of Bangyuan......

(End of chapter)