Chapter Seventy-One: Lingzhou

On April 5, the temporary residence of the imperial camp in Pingding City.

"Your Majesty, a first-term military cadet, Liu Mu'er, who joined the army next to the master of the Yixiang group, asked to see you."

"Liu Mu'er? Quick pass. "Liu Mu'er was originally a little slave I rescued on the Jincheng altar back then, but now he has grown up and practiced martial arts, their names are given by me, and he and Liu Jin'er are also the guards I specially selected for Guan Feng and Xu Ling'er.

After a while, Liu Mu'er followed the Yellow Gate official to get the account - but, where is the energetic Liu Mu'er in my memory, he described him as haggard, thin, and his eyes looked very big. Moreover, he actually had a broken arm, and his body was also scarred, wrapped in layers of cloth, and blood was still oozing in some places. As soon as he entered the account, he fell to his knees and cried loudly: "Your Majesty, I have no face to see you. I didn't protect the county lord well, let her be killed by the enemy, I deserve death! ”

My heart was slightly sour, and I said, "You get up, don't be like this." What was the situation? How was the princess lost, and how did the lord die in battle? ”

Liu Mu'er said: "At that time, I accompanied the county lord in Shuofang, and at that time, we were busy rescuing Han Nu. Your Majesty, if you haven't seen it with your own eyes, you won't understand how miserable Hannu lived at the hands of the Xianbei people. They are nothing more than old sheepskins that have not been made of nitrate all year round, and they cannot eat or drink, even if the sheep is herded to death, or the milking is not full, they will be punished at will, the whipping is light, and the leaders who like torture will cut off their ears and noses without moving, or kill the sacrifice to the heavens. Some children are roasted alive and eaten, called roast lambs. His voice choked, and I knew he remembered what he had been through.

"The county lord and the princess are running around for these Han slaves, and none of the Hu people are willing to hand over the Han slaves in their hands, and even if they do, they will only hand over some of the old, weak, sick and disabled, who are unable to work. The lord of the county is usually very gentle, and even more so for us, but that time, she lost her temper, and when she lost her temper, even the princess was shocked. Then she took me directly into the territory of Putou, the lord of Xianbei in the west, Putou refused to admit that he still had Han slaves under him, but the county lord had already figured out her situation, and 1510 put him under the Han slaves, where they were grazing, what their names were, and how many people there were, I dare to say that even Putou himself can't remember so much. At that time, Putou was stupid, and then there was no choice but to let those people go. After taking down Putou, all the Hu people were honest, and the slaves were released a lot quickly. Hannu everywhere regarded the lord of the county as if she were a god, and her prestige even surpassed that of the princess, and the people respected her, loved her, and made her story into songs and sang it around.

"The lord was busy all day, but I saw that she always seemed unhappy, so I asked her why, but she did not answer, but looked south. At that time, I wondered if she was homesick.

"In March, there were rumors that the Xianbei people were acting abnormally, and the local knowledge reported it to the county lord, and this kind of news often came and went, but this time the county lord paid attention to it, and she immediately made a decision to let all the Han slaves gather together and prepare to move south.

"On the fourth day of the third lunar month, a group of Hu people came to harass Xi'anyang, wounded more than a dozen people, robbed more than 30 horses, and fled north. It happened that Princess Xie was there, and the princess was in a hurry, and led people to chase them north, saying that she wanted those murderers to be caught. This kind of thing happens all the time, and no one takes it to heart. But until the evening, the lord did not wait for the princess to return. The county lord was in a hurry, saying that he was afraid that something was wrong, so he asked me to go and investigate. I traveled more than fifty miles to the north, and met one of the princess's guards, who said that the princess had been attacked, and that the enemy was not a small group of Hu people who were harassing Western Hanyang, but a brigade of tens of thousands of people, composed of Bu Dugen and the rebellious Xianbei people. Right now they are rapidly attacking south. As soon as I heard it, I knew that it was bad, the princess was afraid that it would be over, and my brother Liu Jin'er would be unable to protect his life with the princess. But at the moment, with our strength, rescue is simply impossible, the enemy is too strong, and we have to find a way to escape. A team of 10,000 people is simply not something we can resist.

"I will immediately go back to the city and report to the county lord, and ask the county lord to quickly lead the army south, cross the river and flee to Shuofang City, where the city is high and the pond is deep, and it may be possible to avoid it for a while. The county lord said, if we leave, the tens of thousands of Han slaves in this city who have only been rescued are afraid that they will all die in the hands of the Xianbei people. I said that I was in a hurry now, and I couldn't care about it so much. The lord said, "What would you think if there were your brothers and sisters among these people?" I was in a hurry and said, even if there are my brothers and sisters, they will want you to go first. The county lord smiled, then I can't leave early.

"She immediately ordered the whole city to retreat southward, but she herself commanded us to go north and ambush the Xianbei people. I said that Xianbei people are many and powerful, and it is not easy to ambush. The county lord said that the Xianbei people captured the princess, knowing that we had no horses, we must be unprepared, as long as we attack quickly and attack one of them, we will definitely win. At that moment she told me how to ambush and how to go on the expedition. I was given another glass of wine, and my blood was surging, thinking that even if I died for the county lord, I would not live in vain this time. Now he led 500 men to the north. Before leaving, the county lord arranged for people to find countless poppies (bottles with small mouths and big bellies), I asked what was going on, the county lord said, we only have 100 boats, it must not be possible to cross so many people's eyes, dozens of poppies are sealed, lined up in a rectangle, the mouth is down, the bottom is up, tied together with ropes, and then clamped with wood, called 'wooden poppies', with it to make a raft can carry more people than ordinary rafts, to ensure that the river is crossed quickly. He also said that this was the method that Han had done back then. I knew that Han Xin was the hero who founded the Great Han Dynasty, and he was the star who came down from the sky to help Emperor Gao fight the world, so I thought that the county lord must also be a star in the sky, otherwise how could he know so many things? also has confidence in the northern attack Xianbei.

"The situation is just as the county lord said, we only set up an ambush fifty miles north of Xi'anyang, and Putou's younger brother Pu Feng led a thousand troops. They were so proud that they did not expect an ambush in the slightest. I was so angry with him that I rushed out to engage him, and then I fled, and he pursued him closely, separated from the rear army, and was shot into a hedgehog by dozens of strong crossbows that I lay down. Then our whole army attacked, and the leaderless Xianbei people were defeated and fled.

"Then, without waiting for the enemy to form an encirclement, we quickly moved south to the forage field of the army north of Yangcheng in Xi'an to prepare. In March, the grass and trees in northern Xinjiang sprouted, unable to meet the needs of cattle and sheep to graze, mainly relying on forage, piled up like a mountain. According to the calculation of the county lord, after they were ambushed, they must have marched step by step, did not dare to walk quickly, and camped in the forage field when it was dark. According to the orders of the county lord, we quietly sprinkled the things that ignited the fire, leaving more than ten dead soldiers to hide in the hay pile, and the rest continued to move forward, walking for more than 20 miles, I stood on a high slope and looked back. Sure enough, at dusk, the enemy came. When they saw that the forage field was safe and sound, they were overjoyed, and immediately occupied the forage field, fed the horses with grass, and set up camp in place. At night, there seemed to be a huge cracking sound in the north, which was the sound of a fire rushing into the night and the wind blowing and shaking. I have never seen such a fire in my life, it simply burned half of the sky, under the firelight, countless Xianbei people ran and fled, let out a terrible scream, the war horses kicked and crashed, bursts of sorrow, watched from a distance, and fell to the ground like paper people and paper horses, no longer moving.

"I don't know how many people were burned to death in Xianbei, but I do know that all the brothers left behind died. We wanted to get on our horses and take advantage of the chaos to fight again, but then we found that we didn't need to, and the fire ignited the long-dry land, and the dead branches and weeds on the ground were all set on fire, and with the west wind to the east, it became a fiery dragon, blocking the communication between the enemy and us.

"When we returned to Xi'anyang, it was already the third day, and we successfully completed the blocking mission and brought back most of our brothers. After entering the city, we found that although the people had been empty, the county lord was still waiting for us with some rafters, and we couldn't help but be moved to have no land. The county lord asked us about the situation along the way, and said, Xianbei thieves are coming, how can we let them loot smoothly? We have taken away all the grain, grass, cattle and horses in the city, poisoned all the wells, left an ambush to attack them, and set fire to Xi'an Yang. And he asked who would stay. I asked to stay, but the county lord said that I had just come back, so I had better rest first, and it turned out that a military marquis surnamed Sun in the military academy stayed. Everyone knows what it means to choose to stay in this situation, they risk their lives to harass the enemy, and they will be killed by the enemy, which will not play a role. Moreover, the fire in Xi'anyang obviously failed to burn, and the Xianbei people learned shrewdly.

"Originally, we thought that the rest of us could leave safely, but we miscalculated one thing, that is, these people were too difficult to organize, and when we arrived at the Yellow River crossing, we found that for such a long time, there were still more than 10,000 people who had not been able to cross the Yellow River. Unlike before, this time the enemy was prepared, the enemy went crazy, and we learned afterwards that Sima Wang almost died because he drank the water in the Yangjing in Xi'an, vomiting up and down. This time it was Cao Wei who came to the forefront, Yan Huan personally led the team to attack, we blocked the time not long after, we met Yan Huan, Yan Huan's martial arts are high, beyond my imagination, my skills are not bad in the military academy, but I besieged him with four or five military cadets, but more than ten moves, he killed three, and cut off my left hand with a knife. At this time, there were still more than 4,000 Han slaves who had not crossed the river, and the county lord was already on the wooden poppy, but she jumped out of the boat and returned to kill in person. rescued the county lord, and I was carried back because I was injured, half unconscious.

"The lord and I were lifted onto the boat, and the boat sailed south from the shore. I saw that we were in that place, hundreds of people rushed up, surrounded Yan Huan in the middle, like a swarm of ants covered with a sugar cube, and was rejoicing, suddenly there was a bang, the Han slaves were thrown away one after another, Yan Huan rushed out as if he had been bathed in blood, he waved his arms, countless Xianbei people and Wei troops rushed up, those untrained Han slaves fell to the ground one after another, blood flowed, and the Yellow River turned red.

The county lord was so heartbroken that he stood at the stern of the boat and cried bitterly, at this time, Yan Huan rushed to the shallow water on the shore like a fierce god, and after more than a hundred steps, he raised his hand to be an arrow! This arrow, this arrow hit the county lord's chest......"

Speaking of this, Liu Mu'er couldn't cry anymore, and I couldn't help but burst into tears. I think of Huang Zhong who died under Yan Yan, Zhao Zheng who died under Yan Xie, today, another of my relatives has left me, is it possible that the Yan family is my nemesis! Could it be that I and the Yan family can only end by cutting off the incense?

The county lord shook and fell on top of the wooden poppy, and I struggled forward and shouted, county lord! Princess! The county lord slowly opened his eyes and said Don't cry, I won't be able to, the guardian of Shuofang City will be handed over to you. She took off a piece of jade from her chest, put it on the side of her mouth and kissed it, and handed it to me. After saying that, he closed his eyes......

"The death of the county lord, the whole city was angry, they followed me, desperately blocked the Xianbei and Cao Wei people, they saw that there were Xianbei people who crossed the river, they swarmed up, did not use any weapons, tore with their hands, bit with their teeth, and also tore the enemy to pieces. When Yan Huan crossed the river in person, hundreds of people pushed Yan Huan all the way to the river, and Yan Huan escaped death in the rolling waves, and did not dare to cross the river again. In addition, there were no ships on the north bank of the Yellow River, and they could not levy a few boats from far away, and they could not make wooden poppies, so they had no choice but to do anything on the other side of the river. That's how it happened. ”

I stood up and was silent for a long time, imagining the situation, my heart fluctuating. After a long time, I asked, "Can I see that jade pendant?" ”

Liu Mu'er took out a cloth bag from his chest and opened it layer by layer, it was a flash of brilliance, and the crystal warm jade body was engraved with a delicate seven-star pattern. It was a token I gave to Jiang Wei, Wang Jun and Zhuge Qiao when I was a teenager, and it turned out that Jiang Wei had already given it to her. It can be seen that Jiang Wei's feelings for Ling'er are by no means as plain as he showed in front of us. For this, it is even more sentimental.

"The county lord of Yixiang is the glory of my Ji Han and a model in our army. Although she went, she was still watching us from heaven, she died for the people of the Han Dynasty, and for her sake, I would never let go of anyone who dared to hurt her! ”

"Your Majesty, some people say that you are going to give up the four northern counties, right?"

"Who said such bastard words?! I personally came north to let the world know that I will never give up an inch of the land of my great man! All the people of my great man, I will never give up on one! I know that all the Xianbei, Qianghu, and even the Xiongnu all think about the rich land on both sides of the Yellow River, and they all think that the people of the Han are easy to bully, and the land of the Han is easy to take. I'm going to show them by action that they've miscalculated! They feel that I have few people in the north, that is, I do not attach importance to the north, and I now want to declare to the entire northern Xinjiang that even if I only release one soldier in the northern Xinjiang, he also represents Ji Han's heavenly might, and harming him is equivalent to declaring war on Ji Han! This time, I want to take back all the four northern counties with my own hands, and I want to form a separate state and county, and the name will be Lingzhou! I want the descendants of Ji Han to remember for generations to have such a woman who died for the border county of the Han Dynasty! ”

Liu Mu'er burst into tears: "The ministers and the 100,000 people in Shuofang City are willing to break their bones for Your Majesty, and then die!" ”