Eighty-first episode: The fall of Xiangyang
It was close at hand, but all the previous efforts were abandoned, Fu Tianpeng saw Sun Liu capture Li Hengshuang back to the army, and his heart was annoyed. When Sun Liu came back, Li Cheng and Tao Zisi were full of joy. Tao Zisi suggested to Li Cheng, now that Li Heng is in our hands, Xiangyang City is empty of air defense, and this is a good time to enter the army.
Li Cheng sent Ma Jin and Shao You as the main and deputy vanguards, and Tao Zisi as the military advisor, and raised 100,000 troops to attack Xiangyang. The rebels were huge, burning and looting all the way, and after hearing the news, the people fled from Xiangyang to take refuge everywhere.
After Fu Tianpeng got the information, he hurriedly returned to the camp with Zhao Xueqing and reported the situation in Xiangyang to Yue Fei. Although Yue Fei was angry when he heard that Li Heng had left his post without permission and that Xiangyang had fallen, it was imperative that he quickly submit a military intelligence report to the imperial court, and let Gaozong order someone to transfer grain and grass and send reinforcements.
After the Tang report was in Qin Hui's hands, he detained the Tang Bao and hurriedly returned to the Prime Minister's Mansion to discuss countermeasures with his wife Wang. The Wang family instructed Qin Hui to send people to buy grain from the people at a lower price, and then mixed sand and barnyard grass into the grain and grass. If the court investigates it in the future, it can only put the blame on the grain delivery officer.
After Qin Hui listened to Wang's strategy, he immediately sent people to start collecting grain from the people. He took this opportunity to lower prices, wantonly exploit the people, and make the people's resentment boil. Many people were thrown into prison by Qin Hui for this, but the way of speech was blocked, and Gaozong didn't know how serious the consequences of this incident were.
After the grain and grass arrived at Yue Fei's tent, everyone opened the grain bag and saw that there was only a little rice floating on the surface of the bag, and the rest was sand and barnyard grass. Niu Gao was furious when he saw the situation, he grabbed the clothes of the grain delivery officer, and asked him sharply What was going on?
The grain transport officer looked at the sand and barnyard grass in the bag, and begged Niu Gao for mercy again and again, he told Niu Gao that the grain delivery was planned by Qin Xiangye, and he was only responsible for delivering the grain. After Fu Tianpeng heard the grain transport officer's story, he thought of all the shameless deeds Qin Hui had done before, and the anger in his heart burned brightly. Fu Tianpeng turned around, pulled out the war horse and was about to leave the village. At this time, Yue Fei appeared and asked Fu Tianpeng what he was going to do?
Fu Tianpeng pointed to the grain bag and told Yue Fei that Qin Hui used sand and barnyard grass as food to send to the front army, and the soldiers had to fight hard in Xiangyang, how could they do it without food? And this old thief must have done everything possible to lower the price, and I don't know how many people have been harmed. Fu Tianpeng said that he would get on the horse and go to Lin'an to settle accounts with Qin Hui.
Yue Fei stopped Fu Tianpeng and treated him with righteousness. Yue Fei told Fu Tianpeng that there are priorities, and now that the rebels are attacking Xiangyang, our top priority is to quickly march to the aid of Xiangyang. Qin Hui committed many injustices, so naturally he was punished by national law.
When Fu Tianpeng saw Yue Fei say this, he had to temporarily suppress the anger in his heart and let the marshal dispatch. At present, Yue Fei is worried about how to solve the timely supply of grain and grass. The army did not move, and the grain and grass went first. Grain and grass are the courage of the three armies, and it is difficult to move an inch without it. Yue Fei came to the battalion officer to inquire about the military expenditure, and the officer told Yue Fei that because of the frequent wars recently, there was not much military spending left.
Yue Fei sighed lightly and waved his hand at the secretary, after the secretary stepped back, Yue Fei still had to discuss with Fu Tianpeng and the joint venture generals how to prepare grain and grass. While they were talking, the soldiers came in to report to Yue Fei, and the Heavenly King helped Yang Yi to ask for a meeting outside. When Yue Fei heard that Yang Yi was coming, he immediately asked the soldiers to lead Yang Yi in.
After Yang Yi came to the tent, he greeted Yue Fei and the generals of the joint venture. Fu Tianpeng met Yang Yi again, and he was very happy in his heart. Yue Fei asked Yang Yi why he came to the camp, and Yang Yi told Yue Fei that the Heavenly King had heard that there was a shortage of food in the marshal's camp, so he organized a fleet to bring 30,000 stone of grain. The grain ship is now moored and docked, and the marshal can send men to quickly transport the grain and grass back to the camp.
Yue Fei thanked Yang Yi for his generous food donation and constantly praised him as a righteous man. Yang Yi listened and said to Yue Fei: "Yue Shuai, you are serious, if it weren't for you and Brother Fu to save each other, Yang would have died in the hands of the gangsters." Now that the rebels are attacking Xiangyang, as long as Yue Shuai has a place where the Heavenly King Gang can be used, he can just open his mouth. ”
After having grain and grass, Yue Fei immediately planned and dispatched troops to support Xiangyang. Yue Fei ordered Niu Gao to be the vanguard, Wang Gui, Tang Huai, Dong Xian, Yang Zaixing and others to be the deputy generals, and raised 100,000 troops to relieve the siege of Xiangyang. The battle ahead was tight, Fu Tianpeng and Zhao Xueqing asked for help one after another, and followed the generals to crusade against the rebellion.
After Niu Gao arrived in Xiangyang City, he ordered the soldiers to line up in a Yanling formation. He waved his hammer and walked out of the formation, pointing at the head of the city and scolding. Li Cheng was scolded by Niu Gao, followed by the military advisor Tao Zisi, Sun Liu, Ma Jin and other generals, led all the soldiers to lower the drawbridge, and ran out of the city gate with murderous spirit.
The two sides confronted each other, and there was not much nonsense to say. Niu Gao stepped forward and came to beat Li Cheng. Ma Jin waved the crescent shovel and fought with Niu Gao. Two rounds later, Niu Gao hid a gong in the stirrup, turned around and beat Ma Jin to death under the horse. The vanguard won the first battle, which greatly boosted the morale of the Song battalion. Niu Gao took advantage of the situation and slapped his horse again and killed Li Cheng and others.
Li Cheng saw that Niu Gao killed Ma Jin, and he gritted his teeth in anger. He was about to step forward to meet him in person, when Tao Zisi rode over. He told Li Cheng that he had a way to deal with Niu Gao. Li Cheng nodded, turned the horse's head and returned to the formation. Tao Zisi held a three-foot Qingfeng, dressed in a green coat, and stood less than five meters away from Niu Gao.
Niu Gao saw Tao Zisi closing his eyes tightly, standing in place like a statue, he was a little confused for a while, and he didn't know what this old man with a bull nose was doing. Niu Gao was afraid that Tao Zisi would use some tricks, so after he stopped holding the reins, he said to Tao Zisi: "Hey, what are you going to do when you stand there like a dumb horse?" ”
Niu Gao asked questions repeatedly, but Tao Zisi was silent. Seeing this, Niu Gao scolded and said, "Do you think that pretending to be a clay statue of King Kong can scare me away, tell you, Second Master Niu doesn't eat this set." ”
After that, Niu Gao quickly whipped his horse and rushed towards Tao Zisi like crazy. Tao Zisi had words in his mouth, and suddenly the wind blew fiercely, flying sand and stones, and Niu Gao was blown so that he couldn't open his eyes.
When he was discerning the direction, he saw a flash of white light, and then he heard Niu Gao's "ah" cry and fell under the horse.
Li Cheng saw that Niu Gao was knocked off his horse by Tao Zisi, and immediately ordered his soldiers to take people. Fu Tianpeng hurriedly performed light skills and rescued Niu Gao in front of the rebels. Li Cheng saw that Fu Tianpeng had ruined his good deeds, he opened his eyes, gritted his steel teeth, and ordered all the soldiers to rush up and surround Fu Tianpeng.
In the face of the soldiers wearing armor and holding halberds, Fu Tianpeng was not afraid, he pulled out the blue wave treasure knife, slashed left and right, and the sharp sword shadow flew up and down, so that all the soldiers who attacked were killed. Li Cheng saw that the soldiers couldn't catch Fu Tianpeng, and ordered them to prepare to scratch the hook and lasso, preparing to trip Fu Tianpeng and kill him. At the same time, Tao Zisi repeated his old tricks, wanting to use the previous method of dealing with Niu Gao to deal with Fu Tianpeng.
Zhao Xueqing brandished Chanjuan's sword to join the battle circle, the cold moon turned into sword qi, and those soldiers with hooks and lassoes were all killed. Tao Zi thought about reciting the mantra, and another gust of wind and sand hit. Zhao Xueqing told Fu Tianpeng not to panic and pay attention to the movements around him. There was another flash of white light, and Fu Tianpeng saw it very clearly, it turned out to be a flying needle. He immediately raised his knife to meet him, and with a soft sound, the flying needle fell to the ground. Zhao Xueqing and Fu Tianpeng took advantage of this time to return to the team.
Tao Zisi saw that Fu Tianpeng and Zhao Xueqing easily dodged the hidden weapon, and almost didn't tilt his nose. However, Niu Gao hit his flying needle, which made Tao Zisi very happy. When Wang Gui and other generals saw Niu Gao sitting on the ground foaming at the mouth, they planned to command the troops to kill the enemy and avenge Niu Gao.
Fu Tianpeng and Zhao Xueqing hurriedly dissuaded the generals in front of the battle, and now Niu Gao's injury was unknown, so they still carried him back to the camp and asked a doctor to treat him. As for the matter of revenge, after Niu Gao is well, it is not too late to settle accounts with Li Cheng and others.
After Wang Gui listened to the advice of the two, he led the army to retreat thirty miles back and set up camp in the mountains. The soldiers invited Lang Zhong to diagnose and treat Niu Gao, and he found that Niu Gao's pulse was sometimes stable, sometimes nervous, and looked at his face, which did not look like he had been poisoned. After Lang Zhong's diagnosis and treatment, he got up and shook his head repeatedly, and he told the generals that he had practiced medicine for many years and had never seen such a disease, and he could not continue to see a doctor for General Niu.
Niu Gao was injured by Tao Zisi, and Wang Gui asked Fu Tianpeng what he could do. Fu Tianpeng looked at Zhao Xueqing, her eyebrows were frowning at the moment, and she was thoughtful. After a long time, Zhao Xueqing came to her senses. She told Wang Gui that now that General Niu was wounded, the enemy was likely to sneak up on our camp at night. You can send a troop to hide in the dense forests of the mountain road, and when the enemy army comes to sneak attack, you can combine the inside and outside to defeat the enemy army. In addition, it is necessary to send capable soldiers to search everywhere to see if anyone can come to rescue Niu Gao.
Wang Gui adopted Zhao Xueqing's strategy, and he ordered the officers and men of the three armies to strengthen their vigilance to prevent the rebels from taking the opportunity to steal the camp. On the other hand, the soldiers sent came back one after another to report, and they searched for them from far away and near, but they could not rescue General Niu.
Just when everyone was in distress, Yang Yi walked in with a Lang Zhong. Wang Gui and others hurriedly let Yang Yi and Lang Zhong into the camp and asked Lang Zhong to quickly treat Niu Gao. After Lang Zhong checked Niu Gao's pulse, he took out a magnet from the baggage he was carrying. After he circled Niu Gao's chest twice, a flying needle flashed with a cold light and stuck to the magnet.
After the hidden weapon was taken out, Lang Zhong told the generals that General Niu Gao was no longer in trouble, as long as he raised it for two days and drank some decoction, he could be cured. Fu Tianpeng and the joint venture generals thanked Lang Zhong for his rescue, and Wang Gui was even more full of joy and took out a generous medical reward to thank Lang Zhong.
Just as Lang Zhong was about to turn around and leave the camp, Zhao Xueqing suddenly stepped forward and stopped Lang Zhong with a sword. Faced with Zhao Xueqing's move, Fu Tianpeng and the joint venture generals were surprised on their faces, but Zhao Xueqing told everyone that she had a reason to do so.