Chapter 2 Purple Horse II "Whoa", "Whoa", when the wind sounded, Feng Xiaoci, the general of the Right Wuhou, was sitting on the Hu bed and roasting the fire.
He was very familiar with the movement outside, in fact, compared to the storm he encountered when he followed the general Yang Shuang out of the fortress, the wind outside the city was as gentle as a young woman who had just married.
He was not yet thirty years old at the time, and his skills and mind were surprisingly agile.
The north wind swept the snow and sand the size of the beans and hit the face, just as a test for men.
And now, the same wind sounded in his ears, but it was so cold that his heart shivered.
The years are urging people to get old, and he is no longer the Feng Xiaoci who can go in and out of the Turks a few times, covered with blood but not feeling tired at all.
The right martial artist beside him is not the right martial artist back then.
They are all old, including the battle flag with the word "Sui" painted on their heads.
The enemy who was more insidious than the Beilu polished their sharpness, decadent their spirit, and made the Great Sui battle flag that had ignited the blood and dreams of countless young people dimmer day by day, became more and more dilapidated day by day, and became less and less appealing day by day.
Only those who have witnessed the glory are extremely unwilling to end today.
He was unwilling to be defeated by the ragged rogues, and he was even more unwilling to see the blood-stained eyes of the officials and soldiers in the city, but they were still numb.
But these are not the saddest things for Feng Xiaoci, what makes Feng Xiaoci the most incomprehensible is that fighting the bandits has become his own responsibility.
Yang Jishan's soldiers and horses wandered around Handan not far away, and it is said that a group of soldiers and horses from Wuyang County once appeared on the east bank of Zhangshui.
Less than a hundred miles behind him, Anyang, the seat of Wei County, was also garrisoned by thousands of county soldiers.
And Youwuhou has been defeated for so many days, but none of the friendly forces in the three places have taken rescue actions.
The Anyang county guard claimed that the county soldiers were newly recruited and could not afford to fight.
Yang Jishan, the Cheng of Qinghe County, claimed to have been blocked by tens of thousands of rogues when he crossed the Cishi Pass, and could not continue to advance south.
The most cunning was the Wuyang County Soldier, the guy named Wei Zheng actually came with a letter, saying that Liyang Cang might be in danger, and then used this as an excuse to disappear.
As for a thousand thieves, it is possible to capture Liyang Cang unless Ji Jun Taishou Zhang Wenqi is a piece of soil that can't think Feng Xiaoci doesn't believe in this excuse, he insists on it, the so-called danger of Liyang Cang is just a clumsy lie fabricated by that shameless villain named Wei Zheng to evade responsibility.
But in the blink of an occasional thought, he also clearly realized that if Wei Zheng's speculation was true, his career as a horse warrior would come to an end.
Those guys in the court didn't have to make any excuses this time, looking at the slightly blue charcoal basin, Feng Xiaoci grinned softly.
There were many small cracks in his lips, and blood would ooze with the slightest movement.
It was the result of not replenishing food and water for a long time, Feng Xiaoci knew it, but he just didn't have an appetite.
It's not terrible to lose once or twice once in a while, it's terrible to lose the opportunity to wash away the shame forever.
It is impossible for those villains in the court to put ready-made excuses without them, and the suspicious and irritable Emperor His Majesty will not forgive him for his mistakes.
Even if the courtiers and the emperor passed the two passes, Feng Xiaoci couldn't face his soul.
In the days that he had been trapped in the lonely city, every day when he closed his eyes, he could see the robes that had died in battle, covered in blood, looking at him with a certain contempt, despising that he had so easily fallen into the hands of bandits, and that he had sent so many brothers to death for the sake of his own reputation.
Anxiety, guilt, disappointment, all kinds of emotions are like tens of thousands of poisonous snakes, devouring his body and spirit little by little.
Under the influence of the main general, the remaining brothers of the Right Marquis are also depressed.
They also couldn't see where their life was, and they also understood that the reason why the thieves did not attack the city was not because they were afraid, but because they were completely sure that they had eaten themselves, so they waited for the best opportunity all their time.
"I won't give you a chance" Facing the blue flames, Feng Xiaoci muttered to himself.
It was as if there was a pair of ears listening to the flames, and what he said could be transmitted to Cheng Mingzhen word for word.
"Never" bit his bloody lip, and the old general repeated stubbornly.
With his hand to the side, he grabbed a cold naan and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing it vigorously one at a time.
Seeing that the old general began to eat, the soldiers hurriedly moved the cold food to the charcoal basin to bake, and poured steaming strong tea on it.
Feng Xiaoci didn't seem to see it, he didn't use chopsticks to pick up vegetables, he didn't drink tea, he chewed vigorously, swallowing the cold naan and his own blood down his throat.
"General, you always drink some hot tea and it's cold" Zhou Wen, the lieutenant of the county army, was afraid that Feng Xiaoci would be choked to death, so he tiptoed forward and reminded in a low voice.
"Oh" Feng Xiaoci pushed the rice in his throat into his stomach with difficulty, and let out a long breath.
Cold naan is not as hard to swallow as when it came out of the jam, and there is no water to be found on the Gobi Desert, and the snow can be used as a sweet spring.
While recalling the feeling of sleeping in the sand and lying in the snow back then, he forced himself to cheer up, "What time is it, why does the sky outside look so dark?"
"It's just afternoon" Zhou Wen bowed down and stuffed a bowl of salted strong tea into Feng Xiaoci's hand, "It's just that it seems to be snowing again outside, so the sky looks so gloomy."
"It's snowing, it's snowing" Feng Xiaoci nodded confusedly, not knowing whether he was appreciating Zhou Wen's composure or appreciating the change in the weather.
For the rogues who camped in the wilderness, the cold weather was even more difficult.
If the snow had been falling incessantly for days and nights, the brothers would not have to worry about their safety at all.
"I went out for a walk just now, and the thief army has already withdrawn the siege on three sides, and all of them have moved to the depression in the south of the city and stationed" Zhou Wen smiled and took the initiative to report the military situation to Feng Xiaoci.
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In his opinion, since the enemy army has withdrawn from the siege, everyone has the opportunity to make a detour and return to Ji County.
Everything is in place now, and all I owe to the old general is an order.
In the first battle of Fushan, the generals of the government soldiers suffered heavy casualties, so he, the captain of the county army who did not have much opportunity to perform in the past, also became a core figure, he could enter and leave the Chinese army at will, and he could ask Feng Xiaoci for military affairs at any time.
But the rest of the army obviously didn't like this second-half of the county soldier, looked at each other, and pouted slightly.
"Well, it should, it should.
With Fuyang City in the north, the south of the city will be a little warmer" Feng Xiaoci continued to nod, not paying attention to the small movements of the generals at all.
"Cheng Mingzhen is worthy of being my Great Sui General, who is cautious and accurate.
Blocking the official road south of Fuyang is equivalent to blocking the old man's retreat.
At such a moment, it is indeed no different from being surrounded on all sides."
As soon as he said this, Zhou Wen and the other generals changed their faces at the same time, and found that everyone suddenly fell silent, and the old general suddenly realized that he was praising the enemy, grinned curtly, and explained with a smile: "It's a pity that he doesn't learn well, but he wants to be a thief, His Majesty has promised not to use troops against Liaodong, as long as you free your hands, it will be easy to clean up these thieves."
"Hehe", "hehe", everyone laughed dryly.
I don't want to refute Feng Xiaoci's words, and I can't refute them.
His Majesty the Emperor, Yang Guang, was sure to win almost every battle before he ascended the throne.
From the desert to the south of the Yangtze River, I have never met any opponents.
Recently, the main reason for the repeated defeat of Liaodong is that he has brought disaster to the country, and His Majesty himself should still be a saint, at least in terms of martial affairs.
It's just that His Majesty the Emperor will have the spare time to care about the defeat of their 3,000 remnants, and everyone is very uncertain about this.
The first defeat in Liaodong, knowing that there were several generals and thousands of warriors were rushing back, a strong man broke his wrist in the imperial court.
Wei Wensheng set fire to the pontoon bridge, so that the expeditionary force saw that the homeland was close at hand, but had to turn around and rush to the Goguryeo people who were ten times their size.
At this time, it is the turn of the Right Marquis to be trapped in Fuyang, will His Majesty the Emperor send someone to rescue?
"If Your Majesty knew that we were still insisting, I would definitely send troops to help the old general Qu Tutong in Hedong who had been friends with me for many years, and I would not sit idly by" glanced around, Feng Xiaoci cheered for everyone and for himself.
Sluggish morale is not conducive to holding on to help, no matter how desperate or tired he is, he must maintain an optimistic attitude when he is conscious.
Seeing that the coach had returned to normal, the mood of the soldiers also lifted up a little.
A few words of gossiping, speculating on when reinforcements will arrive.
Judging from the map, Fuyang City is not far from the neighboring Hedong.
There is a road along the two Zhangshui rivers that cut through the Taihang Mountain, and it is only five or six days to rush over from the side of the mountain.
"How about our grain reserves" Glancing at everyone, Feng Xiaoci asked casually.
The purpose of this sentence is also to boost morale, more than 10,000 soldiers and horses went out to fight, and now only more than 30% of the original ones are left, and the military rations they carry are willing to be rich.
Moreover, there was already grain in the official warehouse in Fuyang County, and more than 3,000 brothers were open to eat and drink, and they could supply it within a year and a half.
"Yu Dashuai, the food reserves are very abundant, and the brothers have all lived in temporarily vacated houses, so there is no worry about freezing and starvation for the time being" Jiang Tinglin, the captain of Guoyi, pushed Zhou Wen away and stepped forward to reply.
His position was not ranked in the army, and it was also because a large number of generals died not long ago that he had to be temporarily entrusted with important tasks by Feng Xiaoci.
"Later, the old man will go to inspect it, so as not to misunderstand the brothers" Feng Xiaoci stroked his beard and nodded slightly.
He had been decadent for too long, and his bones were sour.
It is indeed time to find an opportunity to go for a walk, and by the way, to appease the morale of the army.
"Yes, my subordinates will arrange it" Jiang Yanlin solemnly arched his hand, but there was not much joy on his face.
This lukewarm expression was immediately seen by Feng Xiaoci, who had just returned to normal, and the old general frowned sensitively, and asked in a low voice: "What, is it inconvenient or the brothers have already misunderstood?"
"The brothers have followed you for many years, and they will never believe that you will give up easily" Jiang Yanlin hesitated for a moment, then looked at Zhou Wen again, not knowing whether to say the second half of the sentence or not.
Feng Xiaoci frowned again, urging impatiently, "If you have something to say, the old man has no habit of guessing people's minds, and he will not scold people because of his words."
"Yes, is this the case" Jiang Yanlin hesitated, but decided to tell the truth, "In the past two days, rumors have been spreading in the city, and my subordinates can't find out whether the enemy deliberately spread it to disturb our army's heart, or whether the brothers themselves are scaring themselves."
"You can't even stop a rumor about what you say, what are you guys eating" Before Jiang Yanlin finished speaking, Feng Xiaoci's eyes widened and he asked angrily.
If Ying Yanglang kept Zhao Yida alive, he would never let something like this happen.
It's a pity that his henchmen died in the enemy's trap, so that he didn't even have a good helper by his side.
"Subordinate, subordinate arrested several people in a row, but none of them were the initiators of the rumors" Jiang Yanlin lowered his head and responded aggrievedly.
The appearance of this little angry daughter-in-law is even more unsuitable for Feng Xiaoci's appetite, and the old general is about to have a seizure as soon as he slaps the table with his hand.
Seeing this scene, Wu Wenzhong, an auxiliary general who had been silent, hurriedly stepped forward to explain to everyone, "The marshals are angry, it's not that they don't do things well, but the rumors are too weird."
It has always been rumored that there is a nose and an eye, and no one can help but doubt it."
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Feng Xiaoci still has to give some of the face of the auxiliary general, although the two don't get along very well.
He glanced sideways at the generals, slowly sat back on the Hu bed, gasped and asked, "You don't have to hide the rumors outside from the old man, the old man has been on the horse for half his life, and he has experienced a lot of things, so he won't be frightened by two rumors."
"It's all shadowless things.
If you don't care about him, you will be scattered within a few days" Wu Wenzhong smiled reluctantly and replied in a low voice.
"Actually, it's my fault for this, after receiving Wei Zheng's letter, I didn't kill the person who delivered the letter immediately.
As a result, I don't know if this guy has a bad mouth, or if the enemy deliberately messes with our army's heart, and the news that Liyang City has been breached soon outside can't be stopped."
"Oh no" Feng Xiaoci secretly screamed in his heart, and he couldn't wait to jump up and pump his two big mouths first.
After being defeated in Fuyang, he was overly sad and inevitably handled some negligence in military affairs.
And the enemy saw this opportunity and unleashed a lot of intrigues.
What the fall of Liyang City meant to Youwu Hou, no one here knew better than Feng Xiaoci.
If the rumors were allowed to spread, the brothers themselves would have broken up without the enemy taking the initiative to attack.
Thinking of this, he didn't dare to make any further delays, and stood up, putting on his armor, "You guys, go to patrol with the old man immediately."
No matter how the rumors spread, we can't mess up the situation first."
As he was talking, there was a sudden commotion outside.
A temporarily promoted lieutenant ran in with a swollen nose and a swollen face, and as he ran, he shouted anxiously, "Quick, let me go to see the marshal."
It's not good, it's not good, someone is going to rebel" "Whoever wants to rebel, you make it clear" Feng Xiaoci stepped forward and grabbed the other party's shoulder and asked loudly.
The newly promoted lieutenant rarely could talk to the commander in person, and was pressed by Feng Xiaoci, shocked and frightened, and knelt down softly, "Boss, the subordinates are incompetent, Xu Huzi of the last three battalions took the lead in making trouble, and he wanted to kill himself out of the city and escape for his life."
The subordinates didn't stop him, and the subordinates are sorry for the big handsome."
"What" Feng Xiaoci pushed away the captain who reported the news, and walked out.
There were so many officers who were temporarily promoted that he couldn't figure out who Xu Huzi was.
But if there is an excuse to flee for his life, the situation will be out of control.
Wu Wenzhong and the others were also anxious, and they were scolding while trotting behind Feng Xiaoci.
The rogues don't have siege equipment at all, and although Fuyang City is not an impregnable wall, from the perspective of experts, if everyone works together to defend it, there will be no problem in holding out until tomorrow spring.
But there are some reckless men who think they are smart, and they always feel that their lives are the most precious, and they always want to escape first alone.
The old general Feng Xiaoci was so anxious and angry that he didn't care if the people behind him had time to keep up with him, jumped on horseback, and galloped all the way.
The morale of the army has collapsed to such an extent that he knows that he has an unshirkable responsibility.
If it weren't for the decadence that lasted for many days, if it wasn't for the successive defeats and loss of the trust of the brothers, if it weren't for the moment when he couldn't swallow that breath and led the people to attack at night There are not so many ifs.
At this juncture, it is important to stop those who attempt to flee before the gates are opened.
He whipped his mount as hard as he could, and sprinted in the noisiest direction outside.
Whoever stands in the way, raising your hand is a whip.
After ramming three people running around in succession and repulsing two guards who tried to dissuade him, he finally arrived at the scene of the incident.
It was already very close to the North City Gate, and the soldiers guarding the gate bent their bows and arrows, aiming at dozens of robes with wraps on their backs.
The guys with the packages on their backs raised their shields in one hand and knives in the other, and formed a very rudimentary tortoiseshell assault formation, approaching the city gate step by step.
"Stop it for me" Feng Xiaoci whipped his mount a few times and rushed to the city gate at the last moment.
"There is a kind of greeting to the old man, so that he can send a certificate of nomination to the thief" Although successive defeats reduced his prestige to the bottom, at the critical moment, the residual prestige accumulated over the years still played a small role.
The soldier guarding the door was relieved and put away his bow and arrows in a daze.
The soldiers who tried to escape through the city gate also stopped in disdain, looking at each other, not knowing what to do.
"Could it be that the old man teaches you to wait on weekdays, just to kill each other for you" Feng Xiaoci was so angry that his eyes were on fire, he jumped off his mount, and gave the deserter at the front a few big mouths.
"There is a kind, you kill the old man first, and then carry the old man's head to Zhang Jincheng.
It's cold and snowy outside, where can you escape like this?"
The beaten soldier did not dare to dodge, and fell to his knees with a "plop".
The "old general" knelt down one after another, lying on the ground and crying, "Liyang, there has been no news from Liyang City for more than half a month.
I'm waiting for the rest of my family to be over there, if a thief breaks into my house."
"Hmm" Feng Xiaoci looked at it again, only to find that most of the people who tried to escape were added to Youwuhou from the county soldiers.
He turned his head to Zhou Wen, the captain who had arrived in a hurry, and glared angrily. wanted to accuse the other party of leading the troops in a few words, but realized that the county soldiers were originally a rabble, gritted his teeth, and turned his gaze sideways.
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"The subordinates are not strict, please punish the commander" Zhou Wen was so frightened that he immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed to confess.
"Liyang City is so high, thieves can't fly in unless they have wings" Feng Xiaoci ignored Zhou Wen and roared at the troublesome county soldiers.
"A few rumors will make you wait for a fight, like this kind of waste back to Liyang, can you block the attack of the thief army Seeing Zhou Wendu kneeling, the troublesome county soldiers were even more depressed, and obediently bowed their heads to listen to the training.
Feng Xiaoci explained a few more words as to why Liyang City would not be lost, sighed, turned his head and commanded Zhou Wen: "Forget it, you take them back to the camp From today on, no one is allowed to go on the street without my warrant."
The disgraced Zhou Wen got up from the ground and left with the county soldiers.
Looking at his back, Feng Xiaoci couldn't help but shake his head and sigh, turned around, and he glared at the officer guarding the gate again, "Next time someone hits the city gate, release the arrow immediately."
Let others rush so close before they think of bending the bow, you guys want to die":