Twenty thousand imperial troops, led by Feilong General Feng Mei and Feihu General Bi Sheng, slowly marched towards Weizhou.
Gao Qiu was in the center of the team, guarded by hundreds of soldiers, looking coldly at the maverick team on the right of the imperial army.
Although there are only more than a hundred people, most of them are uniformly equipped.
Uniform clothing, a tall horse, and a long cloth bag on the back must be weapons such as spears and spears.
"Where did Ximen Qing get this personal team?" Gao Qiu's pupils shrank for a while: "The two men in black in the team are obviously the elite inspectors of the Imperial City Division, but what about the others? They are all
Is it from the Imperial City Division...how come you’ve never heard of it?”
Gao Qiu observed carefully, excluding most of those with uniform equipment, the remaining dozen surrounded Ximen Qing. If someone said these were nursing homes, Gao Qiu would probably have to dig out that person's eyes to see.
Is it fake?
A familiar figure was very close to Ximen Qing, and Gao Qiu recognized it as Lin Chong, the instructor of the Forbidden Army.
Lin Chong just handed in his resignation yesterday. Is this the reason for the love?
But other figures around Ximen Qing also attracted Gao Qiu's great attention.
Some of these people have sly eyebrows, some are monks who don’t look like monks, and it’s even more obvious that they are from the military!
There was a tall figure carrying a huge mace on his shoulders. Only those with extraordinary strength could operate this strange weapon.
These...are all masters?
Gao Qiu had strong doubts. This doubt gave him a bad feeling, as if he thought he was holding a fish tightly in his hand, but found that the fish suddenly had many spines growing on it.
If you continue to hold on to this fish, your hands will be dripping with blood; if you let go, this fish may even slap itself with its tail!
Gao Qiu took a breath, it seemed that there was more than just the Imperial City Secretary behind Ximen Qing.
This doubt was unintentionally solved when we arrived in Weizhou.
When Gao Qiu's 20,000 imperial troops arrived in Weizhou, the other 80,000 troops recruited from the Eighth Route Army had already arrived at the Sixth Route. A total of 60,000 troops and horses had set up continuous camps in the west of Huixian County, Weizhou.
Twenty thousand imperial troops were stationed in the center. Before Gao Qiu could get his butt warm, Zhou Xin, the military commander of Songzhou, came to his door.
"Marshal, there is something coming up that I don't know whether to talk about or not." Zhou Xin looked confused.
Gao Qiu was already a little unhappy in his heart. Seeing Zhou Xin's hesitation, he immediately snorted from his nose: "That's right! What's the point of hesitating?"
"Is the Ximen Supervisory Army's personal troops stationed nearby?" Zhou Xingxin pointed with his hand: "A certain general knows that one of them is the former Qingzhou military commander, called Qin Ming, and there is a person nicknamed Thunderbolt Fire?"
"Huh? Tell me in detail!" Gao Qiu suddenly became interested.
Just now he had noticed that some people in Ximen Qing's team were obviously from the military, but to his surprise, Zhou Xin recognized them.
"It is rumored that this person surrendered to the Liangshan bandits. Why does he appear here?" Zhou Xin frowned and said, "Ximen Qing is also a Liangshan bandit?"
Gao Qiu was shocked: "Captain Zhou, are you sure?"
"Qin Ming's weapon is the mace, which is used by soldiers and horses everywhere, and it is unique among the rulers." Zhou Xin said: "The last general has met Qin Ming once before, and he will never admit his mistake."
"interesting!"
Gao Qiu stood up with a "huh" and paced in the tent: "Don't talk to anyone about this matter yet. Ximen Qing is the official of the Imperial City Department and the supervisor appointed by the government.
, it’s not good to act rashly before there is definite evidence.”
Zhou Xin stood with his hands crossed, waiting for Gao Qiu to speak.
"In this way." Gao Qiu pondered for a while: "From today on, we will send people to closely monitor Ximen Qing's personal troops. If Ximen Qing is really a bandit in Liangshan, he will definitely exchange news with Liangshan... With evidence such as letters,
It’s easy to handle.”
"I will obey your orders." Zhou Xin bowed his hands and retreated.
As soon as Zhou Xin left, Weizhou Fuyin arrived with his hind legs.
The news brought by the governor of Weizhou was not very good. Along with the bad news came a panicked official.
"Captain! This is the messenger from Lingchuan County, Gaizhou." The governor of Weizhou also looked panicked: "Tian Hu's pseudo-private envoy Niu Wenzhong led a large-scale invasion of Gaizhou. The vanguard Dong Cheng has been attacking Lingchuan for many days. The city is seeing
If we can't hold on, I hope the Taiwei will send men to support Lingchuan."
The official submitted an emergency letter personally written by the magistrate of Lingchuan County. After reading it, Gao Qiu just said lightly: "I understand, you go down first."
"Lieutenant! There is an emergency in Lingchuan!"
The governor of Weizhou was extremely anxious: "If Lingchuan is lost, the next step for the traitors will be Weizhou!"
"Let him come!" Gao Qiu suddenly shouted: "Being timid is not the best strategy for a military strategist! The eight troops here have not arrived yet, and the strategy has not been decided. For the sake of a small Lingchuan County, I have to disrupt my deployment!"
After speaking, Gao Qiu slapped the table: "Get out!"
The governor of Weizhou and the official of Lingchuan retreated. When they walked out of the tent, the governor of Weizhou couldn't help but let out a long sigh; the official's face was even paler and he was sweating profusely.
You must know that although he rushed to Weizhou at starry night, when he broke out of the siege of Dong Cheng's army, Lingchuan was already in danger, and now he is afraid that it has fallen into the hands of thieves.
The two left dejectedly, but Gao Qiu ordered someone to invite Ximen Qing to come to discuss matters.
Because Gao Qiu discovered that this was a good opportunity.
A good opportunity to test Ximen Qing.
After hearing about the Lingchuan crisis, Ximen Qing didn't care about his high-minded attitude, but he was secretly surprised in his heart.
In Water Margin, Tian Hu indeed occupied fifty-six counties in five states, including Gaizhou. It was only a matter of time before the bandits invaded Gaizhou, but the speed was already beyond Ximen Qing's expectations.
Although with the help of Bai Ying's power, Tian Hu could quickly occupy forty-two counties in four states without any bloodshed, occupation was one thing, and it would take a lot of effort to recruit the local Xiang troops.
After the attempt to expand rapidly was noticed, the normal approach should be to stabilize the position and concentrate on repelling Gao Qiu's crusade; but Tian Hu chose to continue to expand, and Niu Wenzhong led his army to invade Gaizhou.
The target turned out to be Lingchuan.
Lingchuan is the gateway from Gaizhou to Weizhou.
Is Tian Hu crazy, or does he have other intentions?
What surprised Ximen Qing even more was Gao Qiu's attitude.
Although Gao Qiu took the initiative to invite Ximen Qing to discuss matters, his attitude was completely different.
We sat down to drink tea, and after commenting on the tea and other things, we brought up the matter of Lingchuan's emergency as a topic after dinner.
It's like: "Haha, this tea is not bad... By the way, General Ximen, have you heard about Lingchuan? It's really interesting... Haha!"
What on earth is this old thief Gao Qiu thinking?
Ximen Qing was thinking about it, but he saw temptation in Gao Qiu's eyes.
Damn it, since you’re throwing a ball out to test your reaction, why don’t I give you a trick?
"The tea is really good." Ximen Qing stood up and said, "The Marshal has nothing to do, and I will leave at the end of the day."
From beginning to end, the theme of the two of them was tea, and the Lingchuan incident was not even a pinch of salt.
"What's the rush!" Gao Qiu said with a smile: "I see that General Ximen's personal army has many good horses, and there are also many good hands among the guards at the hospital. I am still waiting for the other four people to arrive, so why don't I use Ximen Supervisor
How about the army send some people to Lingchuan to collect information?"
Lingchuan is about to be captured by the bandits. Are you going to get some information now?
Ximen Qing sneered in his heart and refused flatly: "Those are just soldiers who protect the general. The general is really unable to meet the requirements of the marshal."
"Hahahaha!" Gao Qiu laughed loudly: "It's a joke, General Ximen, don't take it seriously. Lingchuan is in emergency, of course I want to save it!"
As soon as Gao Qiu finished speaking, he reported outside the tent: "Chenzhou troops and horses from Wudu are here!"
"Let Inspector Wu come in." Gao Qiu said with a smile: "You two haven't met yet? Let me introduce you!"
The man who came in was nine feet tall and majestic. He cupped his hands and said, "I've seen the Marshal! I've seen the Supervisor!"
Gao Qiu introduced the two of them, and Ximen Qing knew that this was Wu Bingyi, the military commander of Chenzhou. In his memory, he was just a minor figure in the Water Margin, with mediocre martial arts. He was stabbed to death by Shi Jin when he followed Tong Guan to attack Liangshanbo.
"Now Lingchuan is in danger. Wu Dujian, your 10,000 men will set out to rescue Lingchuan tomorrow." Gao Qiu ordered: "Ximen Supervisor, I really have to wait for the other four groups of people to arrive before the army can all come out.
This time you will go to Lingchuan with Inspector Wu!"
Ximen Qing had a few thoughts in his mind and accepted.
Lingchuan is indeed a key location and cannot fall into the enemy's hands easily. There is no big problem with the arrangement of Gao Qiu, an old thief, but... is 10,000 people really enough?
"The thieves are just a mob!" Wu Bingyi replied nonchalantly: "Marshal, just wait for my good news!"
Ximen Qing is very confident that no matter what happens, with the blood soldiers protecting him, he will be able to escape unscathed. What's more, there are Lin Chong, Lu Zhishen, Sun Li, Qin Ming and others, all of whom are good players!
After the governor of Weizhou got the good news, he came to visit him specially. In addition to his gratitude, he also allocated two thousand troops and declared that they would be used by the supervisor.
But what he didn't expect was that Ximen Qing rejected this kindness.
Seeing the mental outlook displayed by the so-called Forbidden Army in recent days, Ximen Qing felt a deep sense of sadness.
The Blood Blowing Guardsmen are much stronger than them.
The Forbidden Army already has this kind of virtue, but Weizhou's two thousand troops are useless!
Although Ximen Qing rejected Weizhou Prefect's kindness, he kept the Lingchuan messenger as his guide.
At the same time, Ximen Qing learned more about the situation through the Lingchuan messenger.
The force attacking Lingchuan was Dong Cheng, the vanguard under Niu Wenzhong's command. There were almost 20,000 people besieging Lingchuan.
What they didn't know was that just yesterday, Lingchuan had fallen. Facing the influx of traitors, the magistrate of Lingchuan jumped from the city tower and died for his country.
Ximen Qing and Wu Bingyi faced not the 20,000 people besieging Lingchuan, but the 20,000 people stationed in Lingchuan!