In the direction of going from Jinan to Dezhou, a group of officers and soldiers wearing mandarin duck jackets were escorting hundreds of vehicles slowly, and the increasing number of panicked people on the side of the road attracted the attention of an official on horseback.
This official is in his early thirties, tall, with a dark complexion, some sunken eye sockets, a high and straight nose, a slightly curled beard under his chin, and a pair of slightly brown pupils, which does not seem to be of Central Plains blood.
He reined in his horse and bowed his head to a man who was helping an old man to hurry away and asked, "What happened ahead, the official looked panicked when he saw you, could it be that something big happened?"
The man saw that it was an official's inquiry, so he didn't dare not answer, so he hurriedly stopped and said: "It's not good, the Yan army has gone to Texas, Texas has not been held, Cao Guogong led the army to fight and retreat, and is retreating to this side, hurry up and escape, if it is too late, it will be caught by the Yan army." ” When the official heard this, he couldn't help but be surprised, he casually called a few passers-by, and when he asked, his words were roughly the same as what the person said, his face couldn't help but change greatly, and he immediately ordered: "Immediately turn the horse's head, all the military rations, and escort them to Jinan Mansion." ” His subordinates listened and said: "Lord Tie, we haven't received a military order from Cao Guogong, if we just go back like this, we can't afford to bear the guilt, why don't we continue to move forward, if our army is really defeated, it's not too late to retreat after meeting the people of the court." ” This Tie Lord's face sank, and he said sharply: "It's nonsense, when that time comes, people can go, how can these hundreds of truckloads of military rations get away Wouldn't it be completely supplied to the rebel army of Yan Rebellion Before the time to open the pot, immediately turn the head of the car and return to Jinan, if there is anything wrong, the official will be responsible."
The subordinates had no choice but to turn the car around and follow the fleeing crowd to the east.
This iron lord is Tie Xuan, the judge of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies who went to the East China Sea with Xia Xun and Li Jinglong to suppress the Haikou Kou, he is Li Jinglong's deputy envoy, and he has a share of the credit for the trip to the East China Sea.
Tie Xuan has been in office here for almost a year, and this time he was ordered to escort the grain and grass raised from Shandong to Dezhou.
Tie Xuan ordered the grain convoy to rush to Jinan at full speed, and ordered several colonels to ride horses to continue to find out the accurate news, and after a while, the colonel returned, and ran head-on into the army that had retreated from the imperial court, Cao Guogong's 600,000 army was indeed defeated, and now Dezhou may have been lost, because the army is retreating towards Jinan.
When Tie Xuan heard this, he immediately left the brigade and rode back to Jinan to report the news.
Tie Xuan rushed to Jinan Mansion, did not return to the political envoy Yamen, rushed directly to the Yamen of the Command Envoy, turned over and dismounted and broke in, and met Gao Wei who commanded the envoy to join the army, and when he saw him coming, Gao Wei said strangely: "Keystone, didn't you escort the grain and grass to Texas, why did you come back so soon?"
Tie Xuan panted and said: "Brother Shankui, the big thing is not good, Cao Guogong is defeated, Dezhou is lost, the defeated army is rushing to Jinan, the Yan army is in hot pursuit, we should quickly tidy up the men and horses, and deploy the city defense." ” Gao Wei couldn't help but be shocked when he heard this, and hurriedly grabbed him and said: "Quick, you and I will go to see the governor of Shengdu together, if you want to mobilize troops and horses to guard the city, you still need an order from the governor of Shengdu." ” At this time, the supreme military head of Jinan City was the Governor Sheng Yong, who heard the news of Tie Xuan's report, and couldn't help but be shocked, and immediately passed down the general order and began to deploy the city defense of Jinan.
The city of Jinan was crowded, and the military and civilians mixed together, forming a long dragon for dozens of miles, scrambling to enter the city.
Vehicles, livestock, and pedestrians of all kinds crowded the road and even all the places on both sides of the road where people could stand.
The cart that Peng Ziqi and Xie Yufei were riding in was also crowded in the middle of the trip, moving forward inch by inch.
"Sister Ziqi, that, look at that" Peng Ziqi followed Xie Yufei's gaze and saw a carriage being squeezed on the side of the road, and the carriage should be a family sitting on it, dressed richly, the car was open-topped, but there were not many big bags and small bags on the car.
Peng Ziqi asked, "Look what they do" Xie Yufei said: "Look at the shoes and hats outside the staff, and then look at the clothes of the lady and son." ” "Hmm" Peng Ziqi glanced at it and faintly felt that something was not pleasing to the eye, but he still didn't see anything wrong.
Xie Yufei said: "What they are wearing is the clothes in the house, especially the fat lady, who is obviously wearing a Yanju regular dress, not what they should wear when they go out."
Also, if you look at the material of their clothes, the jade on the outer hat and the earrings of the lady, they are all precious things, but they only sat in an open-top carriage, and there was no package on the carriage, which shows that they escaped in a hurry, and they did not have time to bring anything. ” Peng Ziqi suddenly said: "Yes, that's the truth. ” Xie Yufei smiled slightly: "Then, what they are most worried about now is that after entering the city, the property on their bodies is not enough to make a living."
And they have nothing to carry on their carriage, and now they have arrived at the city of Jinan, and the role of this carriage is dispensable for them, you say, if we pay for his carriage, he will not sell it?"
Peng Ziqi was overjoyed and said to Xie Yufei: "You wait, I'll go and discuss with that person."
So saying, he leaped over a donkey cart, a mule cart, and put one foot on the back of an ox, and the big bird fell to the outermost point.
Xia Xun and Xu Jiang and others stood on the side of the fleeing crowd, watching this sea of people.
They are Tanma, but the main force of King Yan passed through Texas and did not enter, and lost it to the follow-up men and horses to receive, and the main force of the forward kept chasing Li Jinglong down all the time, because King Yan now understands that the gains and losses of one city and one place are of no use to him, and he wants to use this victory to inflict heavy losses on the Ming army, so that the Ming army will be greatly damaged, and he will never be able to organize such a large-scale offensive from now on.
So it was a casual dress, and Xia Xun and others, who were familiar with the terrain of Shandong, temporarily changed from spies to act as a probe horse for the army, and the men and horses chased by King Yan were only cavalry, and they couldn't help but worry that Li Jinglong fled halfway, and suddenly set up an ambush or something, but the Ming army fled too fast, they chased down all the way, and could only send back one person every other distance to report the situation ahead.
"Hehe, such a scene, it's really spectacular.
Xu Jiang, quickly go to return to the vanguard of our army, full impact, now this face, the Ming army in the city can not go out of the city to respond, the Ming army outside the city can not calmly enter the city, this place, and it is empty and flat, just suitable for our cavalry charge, annihilating the enemy's main force. ” "Yes" Xu Jiang didn't say a word, and ran towards the road he came from as soon as he mentioned the horse's head.
Li Jinglong led the defeated army to flee to the city of Jinan, only to see a sea of people, horses neighing and cows roaring, all kinds of vehicles and pedestrians crowded a city gate impenetrable, if you look down from the sky, the city gate is like a gourd mouth, and the refugees and troops outside continue to expand and expand, just like the gourd mouth gushing out of the ink, rendering a piece of land.
In fact, now this "ink" is not flowing out, but pouring in, but because of the increasing crowd outside, people do not feel entered, but have a feeling of leaking out.
Li Jinglong was stunned when he saw this scene, and shouted angrily: "How can this be, how can you drive them away like this, my national government is going to enter the city to preside over the military aircraft."
Under this order, the people couldn't bear it anymore, and cursed one after another: "You fucking take the court, enjoy the people's fat and people's anointment, and if you can't protect your family and defend the country, you have to drive away the people and flee for their lives."
Those soldiers have no shame to carry out such an order, and if you want to drive, how can you drive unless you kill all the people, after all, they are soldiers and not thieves, how can you do such a thing that loses your conscience.
Li Jinglong saw that he couldn't enter the city, so he was so anxious that he turned around, and then the horse flew to report: "Report, Grandpa Guo, the Yan army has caught up." ” Li Jinglong was so frightened when he heard that he was about to give the order to leave Jinan and flee south, but suddenly his heart moved, and he asked: "How many chasing soldiers are there?"
The probe said: "The chasing soldiers are the vanguard of the Yan army, no more than 4,000 cavalry, they threw off my soldiers and horses that were moving eastward one after another, but they just crept behind Guogong, and immediately caught up." ” As soon as Li Jinglong heard this, his face was swollen red like an angry rooster, and there were at least more than 100,000 troops following him, and the Yan army was only 4,000 people Li Jinglong ordered sharply: "Deploy several formations to meet the enemy who will be completely annihilated."
Hundreds of thousands of troops immediately moved, the people under the city already knew that the Yan army had caught up, and saw that the Ming army put on such a big battle, and was about to kill the corpses and blood sea, and couldn't help but be horrified.
As Xie Yufei's judgment was, the rich gentry escaped in a panic, and he didn't even bring enough money, Peng Ziqi discussed with the outsider, and the other party readily agreed, gave up the carriage, and accepted Peng Ziqi's money, and at this moment, the entire fleeing team was unanimous, shouting frantically and hugging forward, Peng Ziqi was squeezed out dozens of steps away by the sudden surge of people, and the carriage was also carried forward by the crowd.
"Feifei, Feifei" Peng Ziqi shouted in surprise, but Xie Yufei could still be found there.
Xie Yufei was also anxious, got out of the car, grabbed the carport and shouted into the distance: "Sister Ziqi, Sister Ziqi" Without a few sounds, the car was hit by the crowd, she was unsteady on her feet, and crashed into the car.
It's just such a moment, and he is being seen by Xia Xun.
Xia Xun saw that the war was about to start, and was about to circle the horse and leave, inadvertently, a familiar shadow jumped into view, Xia Xun's body was shocked, and he shouted: "Thank you" With this stunned effort, Xie Yufei had fallen back into the car.
"Is it her, how could she be here, could it be that I was wrong, how could I be wrong?"
Unsure of his identity, Xia Xun finally refused to leave with such peace of mind, but after a slight hesitation, he rode his horse and chased after the carriage that was surrounded by the crowd and rushed to the city gate To be continued: