Li Zhiyun saw that the people of the Xu clan were angry, and he was ready to palm, and his heartstrings, which had been tense, finally relaxed. The people's hearts and minds are already very clear, and Xu Sunsin has no choice but to conform to the will of the people. Sure enough, Xu Sunchen no longer hesitated. He walked up to Li Zhiyun, hugged his fists and said: "His Royal Highness the King of Chu, Xu is willing to lead the Xu family, sever relations with Lu Chongmao, and return to the Tang Dynasty!" ”

"Okay, General Xu is really wise." Li Zhiyun smiled, "I am the Prince of the Tang Dynasty, and I have the right to appoint officials below the fourth rank." This king appointed you as a loyal general, the founding prince of Yu County, and the hereditary replacement. ”

When Xu Sunchen heard this, he quickly knelt down and kowtowed to thank him. When he stood up, he turned to the nursing home and said, "Open the door." The nurses immediately complied, and the gate of Xu's mansion was opened with a "squeak". Xu Sunsin walked out. Lu Chongmao, who had been waiting outside, smiled confidently and said, "Shun Chen, I knew that you would not let me down." Xu Sunchen clenched his fists and said in a crisp tone: "King Wei, I'm sorry, Prince Wang is my honored guest, I can't hand him over to you, please go home." Then he ignored him and turned to leave.

"Wait." Lu Zhenmao suddenly changed color, and shouted loudly, "Xu Sunchen, you are committing a rebellion and plotting to rebel!" Aren't you afraid that this king will exterminate your surname? ”

Xu Sunchen stopped when he heard this, turned around and said: "Lu Chongmao, we are neighbors, and there is no distinction between high and low. If you say so, then let's not hide it, and say whatever we want. Thou hast flat-headed the people, and thou hast worn the crown? The hat is too big, the head is too small, and one day even the crown and head will be taken off! When Lu Chongmao heard this, he was so angry that he shouted loudly: "It's the opposite, it's the opposite, the mighty general, quickly gather the soldiers and horses for me, rush into the mansion, and cut off the head of this traitor and thief!" ”

Xu Sunchen sneered, turned around and walked into the gate, ordered the guards to close the door, and then said to Xu Zisheng: "Captain Xu, you have people blow the horn immediately and gather all the children surnamed Xu." We have to guard this mansion, the barracks and the south gate of the West Gate, and wait for reinforcements from the Tang Dynasty! Xu Zisheng hugged his fists and said: "Subordinates obey orders!" ”

Suddenly, the horn sounded, breaking the silence of the night sky, and the soldier surnamed Xu, who was still staying at home, heard the horn and immediately rushed to the barracks to assemble and stand by.

On the other side, Lu Chongmao also gathered all the soldiers and horses. After the third watch, Lu Chongmao launched a full-scale attack on the Xu family in the name of counterinsurgency, and the soldiers on both sides launched a desperate fight, and the shouts of killing resounded over the entire county.

Fan Shuxiang and Cai Hu were both engaged in the battle, and Li Zhiyun and Xu Sunchen were in command in the halls of the Xu Mansion. After all, Lu Chongmao had twice as many troops, and soon after the battle began, the battle situation became unfavorable. Xu Sunsin ordered the withdrawal of troops from the south gate, shrinking the battle line, and only guarding the west gate, Xu Mansion and the barracks.

At the fourth watch, Cai Hu ran in from outside covered in blood, hugged his fists and said, "King Chu, General Qin, they have arrived." When Li Zhiyun heard this, he breathed a sigh of relief, and his heart that had been hanging finally let go. He turned to Xu Sunchen and said, "General Xu, our reinforcements have arrived." When Xu Sunchen heard this, he was overjoyed and hurriedly exclaimed: "Great! ”

A moment later, soldiers came in to report that the enemy had retreated. Only then did Li Zhiyun realize that the shouting and killing outside had disappeared.

Li Zhiyun and Xu Sunsin walked out of the hall, and the soldiers who had fought all night sat on the ground to rest, and the gate that had been held all night was opened. When they went out, the streets were in shambles, littered with corpses, and some seriously wounded soldiers were lying wailing among the dead bodies. Xu Sunsin ordered the wounded to be carried out immediately and the battlefield cleared.

At this time, a team of people came over with torches, and the leader was Fan Botong. When he arrived, Fan Botong turned over and dismounted, and stepped forward to report: "King Chu, Lu Chongmao has retreated to the Wei Palace, and Qin Qiong and Cheng Yanjin are leading troops to attack. Li Zhiyun nodded and said, "Take your people and follow me to save King Yong'an and them." ”

"Yes!" Fan Botong waved his hand, and a soldier stepped forward and handed the reins of his horse to Li Zhiyun.

Li Zhiyun stepped on his horse and led everyone straight to the prison in Dongcheng. The soldiers and servants guarding the prison had all fled, and Li Zhiyun ordered the prison door to be opened and all the prisoners released. He led people to the cell where they were being held, smashed the door lock, pushed it and walked in. Uncle Cousin and a few of them were curled up on a pile of straw. Several soldiers stepped forward to help them up, and Uncle Tang walked up to Li Zhiyun with the support of a soldier, and his voice trembled: "Zhiyun, are you here?" We've been looking forward to you. Li Zhiyun happily: "Uncle Cousin, Xia County has been captured, you are free!" ”

The next day, the Wei palace was conquered by the Tang army, and Lü Chongmao, Zheng Lei, and Zhou Jian were all captured alive. After all the evil was done, Li Zhiyun did not want to put them in prison and wait for the court to send them down, but ordered Lu Chongmao and his dead friends to be immediately beheaded in public to set an example.

captured Xia County and rescued Uncle Tang and others, Li Zhiyun's rescue mission was a complete achievement. He appointed Hong Zhaoran as the county commander of Xia County, Xu Zisheng as the county commander, left 1,000 men and horses to assist Xu Shunchen in guarding Xia County, and then led the rest of the soldiers and horses to leave Xia County and set off back to Baibi.

More than 300 miles north of Baibi, there is a Yong'an City. As the sun set, in the wilderness on the outskirts of Yong'an City, an army was marching. The group numbered in the hundreds, all of them on foot, and the only dozen or so mules and horses in the group were used to carry the baggage and grain and grass.

At the front of the team, there was a general, he was in his twenties, five feet seven inches tall, with fair skin, silkworm eyebrows and eagle eyes, a straight nose, thin lips, and a heroic spirit between his eyebrows. This person's name is Zhang Dezheng, and he is a general under the command of Li Shimin, the king of Qin.

More than two months ago, Zhang Dezheng led 1,000 men to leave Baibi and go all the way north, to the areas of Jinzhou (now Linfen) and Luzhou (now Huoxian). The task given to him by the king of Qin was to disrupt the rear of Song Jingang's army and cut off the enemy's grain routes. Song Jingang's army was stationed in the area of Jiangxian and Wenxi in Jiangzhou (now Xinjiang), and his grain was transported from the north, and he had to pass through Lüzhou and Jinju in the north of Jiangzhou to the south. Over the past two months, Zhang Dezheng has led these 1,000 men around the Jinju and Luzhou areas, during which they have also encountered several enemy grain convoys, but the terrain around Jinzhou and Luzhou is flat and the roads are crisscrossed, and every time they encounter the enemy's grain convoys, they are not on the same road, and they are heavily guarded. Zhang Dezheng led the army to fight several battles, and although he intercepted some grain and straw, he did not really cut off the enemy's grain route, but he suffered a lot of losses, losing more than one-third of his troops, and now there are only six or seven hundred people left of the 1,000 people.

Time passed day by day, and if he couldn't cut off the enemy's grain route, he would not be able to complete the task assigned by King Qin, so Zhang Dezheng was very anxious.

At this moment, the team is walking in a hilly area, looking far away, surrounded by no people, and the slopes on both sides are densely wooded. Zhang Dezheng looked up at the sun in the sky, turned his head to the deputy general Mao Jue beside him and said, "The terrain ahead is open, let's camp there tonight." Mao Jue nodded and said, "Okay." ”

When the team came to an open field, the soldiers began to set up camp, bury pots and cook food, and wisps of cooking smoke rose in the wilderness. Zhang Dezheng led two personal soldiers to inspect the surrounding terrain, which is a habit he has developed for many years, as long as the army is camped in the field, he must take people to check the surrounding terrain clearly, in case of emergencies, you can do it in your heart.

They had walked two miles east along an overgrown path when they heard a woman's cry for help in front of them. Zhang Dezheng took a look at it, and saw that a hundred steps ahead of him, there were more than a dozen people in different costumes, armed with big knives and spears, and they looked like a group of robbers. Two robbers were dragging a woman by both arms to drag her into the woods, and the woman struggled and cried for help. A few feet away, an old man with a white beard was kneeling and prostrating, begging the robber leader to let his daughter go, but the robber leader not only ignored him, but laughed.

Seeing that these robbers wanted to spoil the women of the good family, Zhang Dezheng couldn't help but be furious, turned his head and said to the two pro-soldiers: "Let's rush up and kill them!" One of the two pro-soldiers is called Wang San, and the other is called Gong Lin, they are not cowardly people, but the number of the other party is too much, Wang San said: "General, we only have three people, and they have more than a dozen, let's go back and call someone, right?" Zhang Dezheng shook his head and said, "It's too late, you guys come forward with me." After saying that, he ran forward, and Wang San and Gong Lin had no choice but to pull out their waist knives and follow him.

Zhang Dezheng took off the curved bow he was carrying as he ran. When the three men ran to a distance of fifty or sixty paces from each other, the robbers had already spotted them, and immediately seven or eight men rushed at them, and some of them raised their bows and shot arrows at them.

Zhang Dezheng stopped, stood firmly with his two feet one after the other, raised the bow in his left hand, and pulled out a few arrows from the quiver with his right hand, sandwiched between his fingers, and the copper plate fingers on his thumb buckled the silk linen bowstring with the thickness of his little finger. The first pierced the throat of the man who rushed to the front, and before he could fall, the second arrow arrived, striking the door of the man behind.

Zhang Dezheng shot seven arrows in one breath, and seven people on the other side fell to the ground. Wang San and Gong Lin, who were following behind, were stunned, they had heard of this Lianzhu Arrow Method before, but they didn't expect to witness it today. The two of them did not follow Zhang Dezheng for a long time, they only knew that he commanded the battle calmly, and they didn't expect that the general still had a magic arrow.

The rest of the other party was frightened, let go of the woman and turned around and ran, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Zhang Dezheng took the bow and walked over, and the old man pulled his daughter to him, knelt down with a "plop", and thanked him for saving his life. Zhang Dezheng hurriedly pulled the old man up and said, "Uncle, why are you here in this barren mountain and wilderness?" The old man pointed to the north with his hand and said: "The little old man lives in Xiaowan Village, a mile away, today with the little girl went up the mountain to collect medicine, and did not want to come back when he met the strong man, thanks to the benefactor rescue, the little old man is grateful, please follow the little old man to the house to sit." Zhang Dezheng was about to excuse himself, but the old man said: "The benefactor is in a hurry, otherwise the little old man will be uneasy." ”