The first year of Chengtian, the first year of Republic, March 25th.
At this time, the siege of the city had been over for more than a month, and a sudden heavy rain fell on Xiangguo City.
In the heavy rain, Liu Hui, who entered the city single-handedly, was walking on the dilapidated streets led by more than a dozen Han army officials.
Liu Hui looked at both sides of the road with a complicated expression, and saw some corpses that had not been collected in time and were abandoned in the ravine. Under the baptism of the heavy rain, the yellow mud on their faces was washed away, revealing their pale faces.
The person who attracted Liu Hui was a small military official named Liu Gu on the top of the city. He was a member of the Liu family of King Zhao. He and Liu Hui had already exchanged genealogies and confirmed Liu Hui's identity, so at this moment Liu Gu was interested in Liu Hui.
There is no doubt about Liu Hui's identity.
This is the true lineage of King Ding, or a direct descendant.
This method of exchanging genealogies is how the children of this generation of aristocratic families confirm each other's identities. Children of aristocrats such as Liu Gu and Liu Hui, in addition to the education they should have, spent most of their time reciting family trees and learning about their ancestors.
The in-laws' homes and side branches are all well known.
Therefore, when two strangers from aristocratic families meet for the first time, they will first ask each other about their origins, and then tell each other about their ancestral relationship.
For example, if your great-uncle is married to a daughter of a certain clan, the other party will definitely know it. So when you ask each other, as long as the other party can answer the question, there will definitely be no problem with his identity.
Because the genealogy is complicated and only the direct lineage can be seen, anyone who dares to pretend to identify it can be exposed at once. This is the aristocratic version of the incision.
Therefore, even if Liu Gu, a descendant of King Zhao's clan, and Liu Hui, a descendant of King Zhending's clan, meet for the first time, as long as they complete the genealogy, they will become members of the same family.
After confirming that Liu Hui's identity was correct, Liu Gu personally took Liu Hui down to the top of the city to see the Prime Minister Jushou.
After passing through a long and narrow corridor, Liu Hui was led by Liu Gu and others to an urn city.
Along the way, Liu Hui, although he didn't look around, could still see the layout behind the city wall clearly.
Sure enough, there is an Wengcheng in Xiangguo City. Moreover, the wall of the corridor between the city gate and the Wengcheng was full of energetic archers. When Liu Hui and others passed through, they were still watching them eagerly.
Obviously, after more than a month of siege on Xiangguo City, at least the morale of the elites in the city is still very high.
When they arrived at the Wengcheng, Liu Hui was surprised to find that there was no city gate here!
How is this going?
Just when Liu Hui was confused, his elder brother Liu Gu shouted to the military officials on the Wengcheng:
"I am Liu Gu, Sima of the Outer City, and I have specially brought the reinforcement envoy to meet with the Prime Minister."
When the people on the top of the city heard that the reinforcements were coming below, they were surprised, and then they cheered thunderously.
The reinforcements have really arrived! The Han family has not failed us.
Then a bamboo basket was put down on the upper floor of the urn, and Liu Gu put his talisman on it.
With a squeaking sound, the bamboo basket was pulled up, and after it was properly closed, the top shouted:
"Let it go."
Just when Liu Hui was thinking about whether to go up on a bamboo basket, Liu Gu touched him and smiled at him:
"Brother, why are you still standing there? Come with me this way. Let me tell you, if the Prime Minister knew that Changshan Kingdom had sent reinforcements, he might be so happy? Hey, there is no need to sleep so hard at night.
.”
With that said, Liu Gu took Liu Hui and turned to the right. There was a corridor there and a gate there, which was obviously the gate of Wengcheng.
Seeing this, Liu Hui already understood its role in defense.
That Jushou was really clever, he did not place the gate of Wengcheng in the middle, but on the side. This was to protect against the enemy's cavalry.
After the outer city is broken, it is easiest for the cavalry to drive straight in. If the Wengcheng gate is placed in the middle, it is easy for the cavalry to rush in at the speed of an assault.
But turning the city gate to the side and using an L-shaped layout broke the speed of the cavalry. In this way, when the cavalry rushed to the urn city and found that the gate was on the right, they could only speed up again. But this pause was what they
After a death pause, the city shooters who reacted will bury these enemy cavalry.
It's really vicious.
Thinking of this, Liu Hui became more natural and tried hard to act like a reinforcement messenger.
That's right, Liu Hui was not the envoy of the Changshan Kingdom's reinforcements at all. All of this was Guan Yu's sudden arrangement after meeting Liu Hui.
Guan Yu wanted Liu Hui to pretend to be an envoy and enter the city, looking for opportunities to create cover for Taishan's army to attack the city.
When Liu Hui took Guo Shu, Zhang Xiang and others south to defect to the Taishan Army, they were quickly captured by the roving flying dragon riders.
After Liu Hui and others shouted that they were rebels who had gone south to defect to the Taishan Army, they were sent to Li Hu by the flying dragon cavalry.
Li Hu had already captured the wall of Bairen's front line.
These dock walls were originally built by the Han army to defend against Qiang rebellion in the east of the river.
According to the establishment, there are at least fifty people in one dock wall. But after decades, these have become a thing of the past. Except for some old, weak, sick and disabled people who rely on the land next to these beacons for a living, other beacon soldiers have long been replaced by nearby ones.
The rich families were divided up.
Now these beacons are in use again because of Jushou's suggestion to Lu Zhi to build two cities and two defenses. Although some small dock walls are still abandoned, large dock walls such as Bairen, Zhongqiu, and Fengshan are still being repaired.
alright.
Lu Zhi also specially allocated 200 elite soldiers from his small army, and then teamed up with the local soldiers to guard these dock walls.
But unfortunately, no one expected the Taishan Army's sudden cavalry to arrive so quickly.
When they learned that the Taishan Army had set off from Handan, before they could start guarding, the Flying Dragon Cavalry and the Flying Tiger Cavalry emerged from the wild and had already charged into the unprepared dock wall.
Therefore, the Bairen frontline, which Jushou had placed high hopes on, failed before it could play its due role.
After breaking through the Bai people's front line, Feilong General Li Hu and Feihu General Xu Huang stayed here and began to build a defense line to defend the Changshan Kingdom in the north from the south in accordance with Guan Yu's plan before the war.
They quickly broke down the nearby rural dock wall, punished the stubborn local tyrants inside, mobilized a group of disciples to serve as slaves in the head of Guizhou, and then trained them to serve as the defense troops of the dock wall.
Then, more than a thousand cavalry including the Flying Dragon Cavalry and the Flying Tiger Cavalry were still roaming nearby, and from time to time they would cross the border and launch attacks in Changshan Kingdom.
But after doing so much, in the end they did not wait for the so-called reinforcements from the Changshan Kingdom. Instead, a lot of rebels came down from the south of the Changshan Kingdom. Although they were poorly equipped, either holding wooden soldiers or carrying hoes, they trickled and continued.
Enter the Bai people's camp.
As an old brother, Li Hu certainly knows what the Taishan Army stands for and what kind of people it needs to rely on. So no matter how busy he is, he will still find time to meet with these rebel leaders.
It was under this background that Liu Hui was sent to Li Hu's tent, and Liu Hui's brothers were arranged near several tents outside the camp, where there were various volunteers, making the noise as if they were alone. ocean.
As for the weapons of Liu Hui's brothers, they were not confiscated. It was not because the Taishan Army was so trusting, and I never thought whether these people might be fake Han soldiers. In fact, these people were not a threat at all.
Why are you afraid of those wooden and bamboo spears?
Li Hu met with Liu Hui and was greatly surprised when he learned that this person was a descendant of King Zhending. After all, this was the first Liu family descendant to defect to their Taishan Army.
You must know that our Taishan Army wants to kill your Liu family.
However, after later learning about the conflict between the Zhending King line and the Han Dynasty, Li Hu could understand. But for Liu Hui, Li Hu didn't know how to arrange it, so he simply sent him to Xiang State later. Guan Yu Camp.
There is a big battle going on there, let this Liu family see the mighty division of our Taishan Army.
Later, Liu Hui took Guo Shu, Zhang Xiang, Bu Sheng, Zhang Yan, Li Feng, Guo Chao and other warriors to follow a convoy to the Xiangguo camp in the rear.
There, he met Guan Yu, who looked like a heavenly being.
But at this time, Guan Yu seemed to be worried. Although his face was expressionless, Liu Hui felt this way.
Yes, Guan Yu was indeed worried, and he was close to being anxious.
He had received military reports from the rear and knew that Yiyang had been lost at this time. Under the guidance of the local tycoon Liu Shi of Yiyang, Julu Guo Dian's army was marching quickly towards Handan.
There is the food platform for the army, and the food and clothing of the whole army are there. Once Handan is lost, the army will be in danger.
Originally, Guan Yu wanted to continue the siege, but it was foreseeable that the Taishan army might not be able to defeat Xiangguo for a long time.
What about a strong attack? The casualties will inevitably be huge. Guan Yu has an elite field force of the Taishan Army in his hands. If they are lost in this senseless siege, then Xiang Guo doesn't need it.
Just when Guan Yu was thinking about joining forces and withdrawing his troops, Liu Hui appeared.
Then a bold idea emerged.
…
Liu Hui met Jushou.
At this time, Jushou should have been lying down, but in order to give the reinforcement messengers confidence, he still forced himself to change into his leather bean uniform and met with Liu Hui in the shogunate.
When they first met, Liu Hui made a good impression on Jushou.
Although his clothes were stained with blood and his face was dirty, his heroic spirit still made Jushu sigh. After all, the children of the Han family had good luck and were still such heroes.
Especially when I learned that this man was able to break into the city from the tight siege of Taishan Army. His bravery and courage were truly extraordinary.
But after hearing Liu Hui introduce himself as the True King of Ding, Ju Shou's brows knitted together.
As an elite member of the Hebei gentry, Jushou naturally knew all about the secrets of this dynasty. It can be said that the lineage of King Zhending is not loyal.
Jushu himself has no objection to the Zhending kings and his family, and even has a little sympathy for others. This is because the reason why the Hebei sect declined in the country was due to the Zhending king Liu Yangyiyu and the subsequent Chu kings.
Eucalyptus.
When Guangwu conquered the world, the Hebei family made great efforts. However, under the intentional purges of the Henan faction, first the line of King Zhending was eliminated, then his niece Queen Guo was deposed, and finally the King of Chu who was the descendant of Queen Guo was deposed.
He was imprisoned for treason. After that, he went to Daxing Prison and arrested all the scholars from Hebei Province.
From then on, the Hebei faction failed to recover. It was not until Emperor Huan and the Western Emperor to the west were both from Hebei that they regained their momentum a little.
Therefore, Ju Shou does not reject the Zhending King lineage. After all, he is also from their Hebei sect. Even his good friend Shen Pei, a Hebei sect who is more fierce than him, will he appreciate him even more if he meets this person named Liu Hui?
But people are like people, things are like things. Although he had a good impression of Liu Hui, because of King Zhending, Jushou still became suspicious, so he asked:
"Oh, as a reinforcement of the Changshan Kingdom, do you have a letter for me?"
Who knew that Liu Hui replied generously:
"There are no letters, only oral messages. Because Feng Guoxiang is worried that the letters will be intercepted by Taishan thieves and then plot to make money for Xiangguo, so he asked me to replace them with oral messages. If I am captured, I only need to die."
Jushu listened to Liu Hui's words expressionlessly, and suddenly praised:
"Xiang Guoxiang Feng is careful after all and knows that the letter is inappropriate. Then let me ask you, since you don't have a letter, how can I trust you?"
Liu Gu, who was waiting beside him, heard what Jushou said and was about to step forward to answer, but was stopped by Jushou, who said:
"You can only prove that you are a descendant of the Zhending Liu family, but you cannot prove that you are the so-called reinforcement messenger."
Faced with Jushou's doubts, Liu Hui bowed calmly and said:
"There is the Changshan King's talisman as proof."
After saying that, Liu Hui took out a golden talisman from his sleeve pocket and handed it to Jushou.
Jushou looked at it repeatedly and found that although there were blood stains on the seal, it was indeed the seal of King Changshan. As for the blood stain, it should have been left by Liu Hui when he entered the city.
After touching the seal, Jushou asked again:
"The leader of your Changshan reinforcements this time is King Changshan?"
Liu Hui nodded.
But Jushou immediately scolded:
"It's nonsense. How can King Changshan have the right to command the army? According to the laws of the country, princes and kings cannot build armies and go on expeditions without central orders. How can King Changshan dare to command reinforcements to save me?"
Liu Hui did not expect that Jushou would give him a trap here, but his strong psychological quality still allowed him to answer calmly:
"Laws are dead, people are alive. This time the troops were sent by the state minister, and King Changshan unanimously agreed, and then King Changshan led it from afar, in order to make up for the sin of King Changshan abandoning the country during the Yellow Turban Rebellion. In this way, Ju
The Prime Minister still doesn't believe it, so An Liu will have no choice but to kill again."
Jushou was silent. No one knew what he was thinking. After a while, he asked:
"What's the message you sent?"
…
There was a silent confrontation inside the city, while the heavy rain outside the city became more and more powerful.
The rumbling thunders were louder and louder, lighting up the boundless darkness and illuminating the hearts of the Han army officials in Xiangguo.
At this time, the Han army officials on Xiangguo City were ecstatic in the heavy rain. They held the city head and stared at the slope outside the city.
They shouted:
"Collapse, collapse, collapse for Naigong."
Just as everyone was thinking, the soil slope outside the city really gradually collapsed in the heavy rain.
The earth mountain that took half a month to build turned into mud during a heavy rain. Fortunately, the Taishan Army Chief Archers on the slope had already withdrawn because they were hiding from the rain, otherwise there would have been another landslide with heavy casualties.
But even so, the officials and servants in Xiangguo City couldn't help but be ecstatic, singing and dancing in the heavy rain. The two nightmares that shrouded them were finally separated.
Now, let’s see how the Taishan thieves attack the city again!
It was also at this time that no one noticed that Zhen Ku, a big grain merchant, took his remaining thirteen disciples and slipped down from the city wall and went straight to the wall of his house.