The next day, outside the main camp in the suburbs of Qili, more than a hundred corpses of Forbidden Army soldiers were lying on the ground. Scattered arrows inserted diagonally into the soil could be seen everywhere, and there was a bloody mess.

The area more than ten feet outside the trench was filled with arrows, all shot from above the walled city.

Pan Mei held her jacquard knife upside down and sat astride the horse. Her body was covered in blood, and blood was still dripping from the blade of the big knife.

After a fighting, the vanguard army also suffered dozens of casualties and hundreds of wounded. The soldiers were silently collecting their own corpses.

In front of Pan Mei, there was another head wearing a helmet, and dark blood was flowing all over the ground.

That's the head of Xu Hetong, the Imperial Marquis of Yu.

At noon, Pan Mei led his troops to appear outside the camp on time. After shouting and yelling at his throat, the Forbidden Army Yuhou Xu and his colleagues invited him to leave the camp.

The two armies fought outside the camp. In less than fifty rounds, Xu Hetong was beheaded by Pan Mei. The morale of the Forbidden Army was depleted and the formation was in chaos. The sound of gold was sounded urgently on the wall, and the remaining Forbidden Army had no intention of fighting anymore.

, returned to camp in panic.

Pan Mei wiped off the blood on her face, sneered and stared into the walled city.

When she saw Murong Yanchao angrily climbing down the watchtower, ready to mount his horse and fight in person, the camp gate had just opened and the suspension bridge had not yet been lowered. Pan Mei opened her throat and shouted: "Yan Kunlun is here, brothers, retreat!~"

With a shout, the soldiers of the vanguard army turned and ran away. The cavalry troops followed the infantry troops first, and also discarded the flags and weapons all over the place. In just a few moments, they fled over the mountains in all directions.

Murong Yanchao was full of anger and had no place to vent. He knew clearly that the enemy was playing tricks on him, but he sent people to fight twice and lost two generals, which in turn dampened his own morale.

Murong Yanchao went out to fight in person, but the hateful red-faced and bearded thief didn't give him a chance at all. He fought dozens of rounds yesterday, and then hurriedly led his troops to retreat.

What was even more abominable today was that he escaped completely before he even left the camp, giving him no chance of a head-on confrontation.

"Expand the search area to a radius of ten miles. No villages, towns, mountains, forests or wild areas are allowed to be spared. We must find the hiding place of this rebel army!"

Murong Yanchao ordered angrily.

Several generals looked at each other, and one of them bravely said: "Such a large-scale search requires too much manpower. Commander, please think twice..."

Murong Yanchao glanced at everyone fiercely, no one dared to say anything anymore, so they had to accept the order and leave.

~~~

Jiao Jixun was busy today counting the grain and grass that had just been shipped from Kaifeng, and had no time to go and watch the battle.

Hou Yi also stayed in the military tent and did not show his face on the pretext of feeling itchy.

After Jiao Jixun planned to convene the quartermaster to discuss matters, he went to Hou Yi's military tent to visit. He knew that Hou Yi was deliberately making excuses not to see Murong Yanchao. He also wanted to talk to Hou Yi about yesterday's conversation.

.

Jiao Jixun held his knife and walked towards a tent. A man pushing a cart passed by him, pushing a cart full of grain bags.

The civilian husband suddenly stopped the cart and quickly approached Jiao Jixun.

Jiao Jixun was thinking about something when he suddenly became alert. He clenched the handle of the knife tightly and turned around to look.

The civilian husband's rough palm pressed Jiao Jixun's hand that was about to draw the sword, and whispered: "I have no ill intentions, please don't worry, General Jiao!"

Jiao Jixun stared at him warily and noticed that this man was in his twenties and had an average appearance. Judging from the posture of his attack, he seemed to have considerable martial arts skills.

"Who are you? How dare you block my general's path?" Jiao Jixun said coldly.

The civilian husband was Hu Guangyue in disguise. He cautiously glanced around with his peripheral vision, cupped his fists and whispered: "Shuai Guo of Yedu greets General Jiao!"

Jiao Jixun's eyes gleamed, he turned out to be a member of the Northern Army!

"You are so brave, aren't you afraid that the general will arrest you as a spy?" Jiao Jixun sneered.

Hu Guangyue chuckled and said: "If General Jiao wants to arrest me, why bother talking to me here?"

Jiao Jixun stared at him, snorted coldly, and slowly released the hand holding the knife: "Tell me, what do you want from me?"

"To be honest, before meeting General Jiao, I already visited the old general, Duke of Lu!"

Hu Guangyue's smile was thought-provoking, "The attitude of Duke Lu is much better than that of General Jiao."

Jiao Jixun's face was dark. It seemed that his guess was good. Hou Yi had been secretly communicating with Guo Wei for a long time. No wonder he expected someone to come looking for him in the past two days.

Hu Guangyue looked around and spoke quickly: "The situation in the court is in chaos, and people of insight are looking for a way out for themselves. Why does General Jiao have to draw the ground as a prison? He only needs to take one step forward, and the scenery he sees will be very different!"

Jiao Jixun looked at him in surprise and found that what this man said was quite interesting.

"What exactly do you want to say."

Hu Guangyue said with a low smile: "There are too many people here, so it is not the place to talk. If General Jiao is interested, my master will be waiting for General Jiao at the second watch tonight, west of the camp, under the flag gate pole!"

Jiao Jixun frowned deeply and said suspiciously: "Your master is..."

Hu Guangyue smiled slightly: "My master said that back in Jingzhou, General Jiao still owed 50,000 rock salt and failed to pay..."

Jiao Jixun was startled, and suddenly said: "You are Zhu Xiu's person!"

Hu Guangyue clasped his fists, smiled, pushed the cart and left with his head down.

In the camp, as far as the eye could see, there were all civilians wearing the same short brown clothes, all busy carrying grain packages. In just the blink of an eye, Jiao Jixun lost sight of Hu Guangyue.

He never expected that Zhu Xiu would send someone to contact him.

Looking around, he found that no one was paying attention, so Jiao Jixun continued walking to the military tent as if nothing had happened.

After discussing matters with the quartermasters with great concern, Jiao Jixun hurried towards the military tent where Hou Yi lived.

Opening the curtain, the beam of light came through. Hou Yi sat by the charcoal basin, looked back, and said with a smile: "The results are just in time, the boys below sent me a roasted pheasant, let's try it together!"

"

Jiao Jixun smiled bitterly and moved a mazaar to sit aside.

"The Duke of Lu is really in great spirits!"

Hou Yi pulled out a short knife from his leggings, cut into pieces a roasted golden pheasant, and handed him a fat chicken leg.

"No matter when, life has to go on, and people cannot do without food and drink."

Hou Yi laughed, and like a magic trick, he took out a bottle of wine from the bag, pulled out the stopper and drank a few sips, then took big bites of the fragrant barbecue.

Hou Yi handed the wine to Jiao Jixun. Jiao Jixun shook his head and looked at the chicken drumstick in his hand. He really had no appetite and put it back in the basin.

Hou Yi didn't force himself and just drank and ate meat as he went.

"What exactly does Guo Wei want you and me to do for him?" Jiao Jixun, who had always been calm, lost his composure this time and asked straight to the point.

After Hou Yi finished chewing a chicken drumstick, he rubbed his fingers with a towel, wiped the greasiness with a towel, took another sip of wine, then wiped his mouth and said: "Needless to say, you can guess what Mr. Guo is thinking.

Murong Yanchao stationed troops in the seven-mile suburb, which seemed timid and fearful of the enemy, but in fact it was the safest strategy besides defending Kaifeng City.

The imperial soldiers and horses were stationed in the suburbs of Qili. If they did not move, Duke Guo and the Ye army would be unable to do anything in a short time. If they continued to attack by force, the Ye army would surely suffer heavy casualties.

Only by finding a way to get Murong Yanchao to march into Liu Zipo and have the two sides fight decisively at Liu Zipo can Duke Guo and the Ye army find a good opportunity to defeat the enemy."

Jiao Jixun said in a deep voice: "So Guo Wei wants you and me to make suggestions in front of the officials and encourage Murong Yanchao to join the army?"

"Not bad!" Hou Yi nodded.

Jiao Jixun couldn't help but said: "Duke Lu, has he ever thought about it. If Guo Wei is defeated and the court investigates the culprit, once this is found out, the lives of you and my whole family will be in danger!"

Hou Yi smiled and said: "It's all about betting, why not choose the side with a greater chance of winning? Do you really think that Murong Yanchao will be Guo Gong's opponent? Gao Xingzhou, Fu Yanqing, Zhe Congruan, Li Hub, Li

None of the vassal commanders in Jun were ordered to come to serve the king, so do you still think Liu Han can be saved?"

Jiao Jixun was silent.

"What's more, with the constraints of Li Ye, Nie Wenjin, Guo Yunming and others, it is impossible for Murong Yanchao to gain the trust of the officials. The officials are suspicious and fickle. As long as he loses one battle, Murong Yanchao may not even be able to keep his position as commander in chief." Hou Yi

sneered.

Jiao Jixun thought for a long time, and finally sighed: "I'm going to see Zhu Xiu tonight..."

Hou Yi clapped his hands: "That's right! If you have any performance requirements, you can ask Mr. Guo through this person. Mr. Guo is reasonable and tolerant and will definitely treat me well."

Speaking of Zhu Xiu, Hou Yi became a little interested: "This person is a popular person in front of Guo Gong. In the future, you and I may rely on him to say a lot of good things in front of Guo Gong. I am an old acquaintance of this person. After meeting,

Let’s catch up on old times and introduce me to you if you have the opportunity in the future.”

Jiao Jixun smiled bitterly: "The old acquaintance is true, but there is no friendship at all. Not only is there no friendship, there may be some hatred."

Hou Yi's eyes widened: "How can you say this?"

Jiao Jixun sighed: "My son, who was born as a concubine, previously married the daughter of the Xue family in Jingzhou. The Xue family was fighting for power with Shi Kuangwei. They promised me to lead troops to Jingzhou to support the Xue family in exchange for the salt and profit.

Because of this matter, I formed some quarrels with Zhu Xiu and Shi Kuangwei..."

"Alas, my grades are poor!" Hou Yi shook his head, "When I was in Fengxiang, I had heard of the name of the Xue family in Jingzhou. The two brothers were ambitious and coveted the position of Jiedushi of the Shi family. At that time, I could tell

, this Changyi Army will definitely have an internal conflict in the future.

Shi Kuangwei and Zhu Xiu will definitely hold a grudge against you for interfering in the power struggle of the Zhangyi Army. The Xue family is just a wealthy family in Jingzhou, with some money and silk, and an in-law relationship with the Dingnan Army. There is no need to stand up for them because of their performance..."

Jiao Jixun said helplessly: "Who would have thought at that time that Zhu Xiu would be where he is today? If it weren't for him, the Changyi Army would have changed hands by now."

Hou Yi sighed: "This is called time and destiny! This time, that time! At first you were the commander of the Fengxiang Army and led the army to suppress Jingzhou. Now, you and I, two bad old men, are asking Zhu Xiu in turn.

Speak good words in front of Duke Guo to save your life."

Jiao Jixun was also full of helplessness. Who could have imagined the situation today in Jingzhou more than two years ago.

"How is your Xue family's daughter-in-law doing now?" Hou Yi asked with concern.
To be continued...