When night fell, Yang Shilin set up a banquet in the mansion to entertain Li Zhiyun and others, and invited a group of celebrities in Nanyang City to accompany him. When the wine was hot, Yang Shilin said: "His Royal Highness the King of Chu, according to the scouts sent by Yang came back to report that Zhu Cang forcibly recruited women and children as military rations, and the people in the castles were terrified and fled with their families. The common people of Xianzhou could not bear it, and under the leadership of a man named Tian Zhan, they rebelled. In addition to Xianzhou, Dengzhou and several other states also raised troops to betray Zhu Cang."

Li Zhiyun listened, nodded, and said, "This king has also heard about this matter. Zhu Cang acted perversely, and it was a matter of time before everyone betrayed their relatives and left! Yang Shilin continued: "Please Your Highness live in the cold house with peace of mind, Yang has sent people to contact various states, and invited the leaders of the righteous army to come to Nanyang to gather together to discuss the plan to conquer Zhu Cang!" When Li Zhiyun heard this, he happily: "Mr. Yang is thoughtful, and everything is up to your arrangement." ”

After Li Zhiyun stayed in Yang's Mansion for seven or eight days, the leaders of the rebel armies from various states arrived one after another. On this day, Yang Shilin sent a housekeeper to invite Li Zhiyun, and Li Zhiyun followed the housekeeper to the front yard, only to see Yang Shilin talking to a tall middle-aged man. Yang Shilin saw him coming over, pointed to the man and introduced: "His Royal Highness the King of Chu, this is Tian Zhan!" Tian Zan stepped forward and saluted with his fists, and Li Zhiyun hurriedly returned the salute.

Li Zhiyun was invited into the hall by Yang Shilin, and saw that there were already more than a dozen people in the room. Yang Shilin introduced Li Zhiyun one by one. He then asked Li Zhiyun to sit on the left side of the square table, himself on the right side of the square table, and the others on the chairs in the two sides of the room. That posture is quite like the gathering of martial arts masters from all factions in the world.

Yang Shilin cleared his throat and said loudly: "Everyone, when there is chaos today, the heroes are competing for hegemony. Zhu Cang rose up and plundered between Han and Huai. What is particularly odious is that Zhu Cang instigated his soldiers to rob weak men and women, and cook women and children, which is not done by birds and beasts, and is indignant by people and gods! We can't bear to see the people being poisoned, so we rebel! However, if they fight for each other, it is inevitable that they will be broken by Zhu Cang, and only by forming an alliance, joining forces in one place, conquering Zhu Cang, and eliminating the cruelty, can we ensure the safety of the people on one side! ”

After Yang Shilin finished speaking, Tian Zan was the first to stand up and said, "Master Yang, what you said is so good!" Attacking Zhu Cang, we are the first in Xianzhou to sign up! After Tian Zan sat down, the other leaders also stood up and expressed their willingness to join forces to attack Zhu Can.

As the saying goes, a snake does not walk without a head, a bird does not fly without a head, and since an alliance is formed, there must be an alliance leader. Everyone elected Yang Shilin as the leader of the alliance and Li Zhiyun as the deputy leader of the alliance, and agreed to join forces to attack Zhu Cang on the day of the next month, that is, ten days later.

That night, Yang Shilin set up a banquet in the back flower hall to entertain all the heroes, and everyone talked and laughed happily. After the banquet dispersed, the leaders rested in Yang's mansion for a night, and then left Nanyang the next day and returned to their respective state capitals to prepare for the dispatch of troops.

Nanyang's army has expanded to 30,000 horses. On the appointed day, Yang Shilin led the soldiers and horses to leave Nanyang City, and Li Zhiyun also led the new army to follow the army to move together.

The meeting place was chosen in Xichuan, which is fifty miles away from Nanyang. After a two-day march, the army reached Xichuan. Tian Zan had already led his men and horses to arrive first, and he brought 20,000 soldiers and horses. Then, soldiers and horses from other states also arrived one after another, with a total of more than 100,000 horses.

Zhu Cang originally had 200,000 soldiers and horses, but after fighting Li Zhiyun several times, he lost tens of thousands of horses, and there are still more than 100,000 soldiers and horses left. Therefore, the forces of both sides are about the same.

After the rebel armies of all walks of life converged, they began to march towards Jutan. However, when the army had advanced less than ten miles, the scouts came back to report that Zhu Cang had heard that the men and horses of various states had attacked him, and he was very frightened, and had led his army to flee to Huaiyuan County. When Yang Shilin heard this, he ordered the army to turn around and turn to the southeast, heading towards Huaiyuan (now Xinyang, Henan).

After a few days of marching, the army was getting closer and closer to Huaiyuan. Outside Huaiyuan City is a plain of Pingchuan, Li Zhiyun rode on a horse, only to see the front of the flag waving, armor clouds, a large number of people and horses like black clouds in front. It turned out that Zhu Cang saw that there was nowhere to escape, and was ready to make a desperate bet and display all his hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses outside the city, intending to fight to the death with the coalition army.

The army stopped, spread out a formation, and confronted Zhu Cang's army, and the two sides were more than 100 zhang apart. Yang Shilin said to Li Zhiyun: "His Royal Highness the King of Chu, your army is a heavenly soldier and a god general, so don't participate in mortal battles." Let's go first, and in case of defeat, your army will use thunder and lightning to slay these demons! Li Zhiyun nodded and said, "Okay, I'll listen to you!" ”

Li Zhiyun led the new army out of the array and retreated to the sidelines to watch the battle. Yang Shilin ordered the soldiers to beat the war drums, and then together with the leaders, he led his men and horses to rush up with weapons, and 300,000 soldiers and horses on both sides started a melee outside Huaiyuan City.

On the battlefield, the war horses neighed, the voices of people were noisy, the swords and swords were shadowed, and the flesh and blood were flying. The enemy and the enemy fought from morning to dusk, and the soldiers on both sides were red-eyed, and the battlefield was strewn with corpses all over the field, and blood flowed and drifted, and even the sunset was as red as a drop of blood.

In the end, Zhu Cang's army could not support it, and retreated into Huaiyuan City, closing the city gate and not leaving. The fighting stopped, and the battlefield finally fell silent.

Li Zhiyun took Zhang Zheng and Cai Hu to patrol the battlefield. Within a radius of more than ten miles, there was a mess everywhere, the corpses of soldiers on both sides were piled up on top of each other, and the seriously injured soldiers were lying on the ground crying wolf. A warhorse, having lost its owner, stood there alone, snorting and wagging its tail. Although he had experienced countless battles, the large-scale killing in front of him still made Li Zhiyun feel extremely shocked.

At night, the strong bloody atmosphere on the battlefield attracted groups of wild wolves, and the wolf's eyes flashed like ghostly fire, and the wolf howl was terrifying.

After two days of rest, the coalition forces began to siege the city, and this time, the new army appeared. The artillery battalion bombarded the tower at the south gate with red-coated cannons, and the soldiers of the New Army blasted open the gate with cluster grenades and rushed in first. Tens of thousands of soldiers and horses rushed into the city and engaged in street battles with Zhu Cang's army.

Zhu Feng'er rushed into the city despite Li Zhiyun's dissuasion. She took the lead, knocking over dozens of enemy soldiers with a big gun in her hand, she was so tired that she was panting, her pretty face was crimson, but she felt extremely happy in her heart.

The coalition forces were attacking fiercely and winning one after another, and Zhu Cang saw that the general trend was gone, so he had to lead thousands of people to flee from the north gate. Soon, Zhu Cang led the remnants of the army to defect to Wang Shichong, and was appointed by Wang Shichong as the "General of Long Xiang".

Later, Li Shimin led an army to attack Wang Shichong. Wang Shichong was defeated and surrendered, and Zhu Cang, Duan Da and others were beheaded on Luoshui. Because Zhu Cang was notorious for cannibalism, the common people hated him very much, so they rushed to hit his body with bricks, and in a moment the bricks and stones were piled up like graves. That's for later.

Zhu Cang's army was defeated, and the coalition forces withdrew from Huaiyuan City and were stationed outside the city. The next day, Yang Shilin discussed with Tian Zan and other leaders, and decided to go to the New Army camp to find Li Zhiyun and formally propose to return to the Tang Dynasty.

Before Yang Shilin left the station, the master said, "Uncle, have you really thought about it?" No longer reinstate the country of Qiuchi? Yang Shilin smiled and said, "Qiu Chi Country has become history, let's return to orthodoxy!" With that, he mounted his horse in stirrups, rode out of the barracks, and after joining up with the other leaders, he came to the camp of the new army.

Li Zhiyun welcomed everyone into the Chinese army's tent and sat down as guests. After everyone exchanged pleasantries, Yang Shilin stood up and hugged his fists and said, "His Royal Highness the King of Chu, we have agreed that we are willing to submit to the Tang Dynasty. Serve the Tang Dynasty as Zhengshuo, be loyal to the imperial court, and serve the country! Then, all the leaders also stood up, clasped their fists together, and said: "Be loyal to the court and serve the country!" ”

Li Zhiyun also stood up and said with a smile: "You are all heroes in the world, hot-blooded men. You have been faithful to the people and to fight violence. Since you and others are willing to defect to the Tang Dynasty, this king welcomes you on behalf of the imperial court! Then, he appointed Yang Shilin as the Xianzhou Dao Xingtai, Tian Zan as the Changshi and Xianzhou Assassin History, and the other leaders were also appointed as the Assassin History or the Chief of the Marching Army in each state.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your position will be played by the emperor after the king returns to Chang'an, and then the emperor will officially issue an edict." Li Zhiyun added.

"Thank you, Lord Wang!" Everyone thanked them in unison.

After resting for two days, the army set off for their respective state capitals and castles, and Li Zhiyun also led the new army back to Champion City.

After resting in the Champion City for half a month, Li Zhiyun prepared to lead the new army back to Chang'an. Before leaving, he planned to go to Zhu Feng'er and ask her to go back to Chang'an with him. However, what he didn't expect was that as soon as he took Zhang Zheng and Cai Hu out of the station, he met Zhu Feng'er. It turned out that Zhu Fenger had come to bid farewell to him.

Zhu Feng'er was dressed as an ordinary village girl, leading a horse and carrying a flower cloth burden on her shoulders. When Li Zhiyun saw it, he hurriedly said, "Miss Zhu, where are you going?" Come back to Chang'an with me, haven't you always wanted to go to Chang'an? Zhu Feng'er shook her head with a smile and said, "No." King Chu, thank you for your kindness, I have another place to go. ”

Li Zhiyun was unwilling and asked, "Where are you going?" Can you tell me? Zhu Feng'er hesitated for a moment and said, "There is a Yuan Mountain fifty miles away from here, and there is a Lotus Temple on the mountain, and that is my destination." ”

When Li Zhiyun heard this, he was taken aback, and hurriedly said, "You want to shave your hair and practice?" Why? Zhu Feng'er bowed her head and said, "My father is deeply guilty. I will become a nun and chant day and night, and I will transcend the souls of those who have been mutilated by him. Perhaps, this can wash away a little sin for him, and it can be regarded as a little filial piety for his daughter. ”

"Miss Zhu, what your father did has nothing to do with you, why should you wronged yourself like this? Can you think again? Li Zhiyun also wanted to convince her.

"I've made up my mind. King Chu, don't persuade me anymore, let's leave it at that! Zhu Feng'er said, turned around and stepped on the stirrup on the horse, pulled the horse's head, and beat the horse away.