Liu Yefei dismounted from the arrow and howled in pain. His subordinates were all hit by the rain of arrows, and no one had the intention to save him. The horse's hooves stomped hard, Liu Yefei heard the crack of his chest bones, and rolled his body into a shallow ditch on the roadside.
In order to avoid being trampled to death on the spot, the right rib and chest where the arrow hit were extremely painful.
Even if he was not dead for the time being, he still had half his life left here. The ambush soldiers were coming from all sides and there was no way to escape. He closed his eyes in despair.
It was Chi Yuanji, the son of Chi Zhou, who led the ambush at the southern foot of Ji Gong Mountain. He did not wait for the large troops to retreat from Daoyu Village and saw the cavalry fleeing toward Dengzhou City. He decisively ordered an attack and attacked Liu Yefei.
Just as he was about to catch an arrow, he saw that the cavalry was defeated without resistance, so he lit torches to capture the prisoners.
Chen Zhihu attacked with a partial force, and Liu Yefei transferred the only three battalions of defenders in Dengzhou City to Daoyu Village. The city was in a mess. Everyone knew that Chen Zhihu's troops had a bad habit of looting the city, and many people
They were clamoring to escape from the city.
After Liu Yefei left Dengzhou City, Yuan Zhixing, the magistrate of Futong, stayed in the city to take charge of affairs.
The enemy was facing a catastrophic situation, and the defenders were already seriously short of strength. Liu Yefei took two-thirds of the defenders to Daoyu Village. He said he was to greet Jiangning's special envoy, but Yuan Zhixing believed that he was greedy for life and feared death, so he fled to Daoyu Village first.
The village is gone. As a city, Daoyu Village is easier to defend than Dengzhou City. More importantly, you can escape southward by boat at any time from Daoyu Village.
Yuan Zhixing still has some backbone and has no intention of surrendering to the enemy. He writes good articles and manages politics reluctantly, but he has no experience in defending a city, let alone the courage to face disasters without panic.
At that time, I was so panicked that I summoned my officials to the government office to discuss matters. A group of people sat there crying and hoarsely talking nonsense about "sacrifice one's life and serve the imperial court", but no one thought about it.
We had to go to the top of the city to organize a defense, let alone rectify the only five or six hundred garrison troops and recruit civilian warriors.
Some officials who were quick-thinking first thought of escaping from the city to seek refuge. Some officials thought of surrendering, but they couldn't find a chance to speak out. A battalion of soldiers who stayed behind in Dengzhou City were abandoned because they were not Liu Yefei's confidants.
I felt that no one from the generals to the soldiers was interested in defending the city, and some soldiers even fled away from the city.
The defenders did not disperse in a hurry, not because of anything else, but because Zhao Zhen led the main force of Dengzhou Town to retreat to Pingdu and had not yet been annihilated, leaving them a glimmer of hope to defend Dengzhou, and they were afraid of being held accountable in advance.
Under such circumstances, it cannot be a surprise that the defenders of Dengzhou City did not notice the Haidong troops who landed at Tangzi Bay in the northeast corner.
Chi Yuanji led his troops to launch an ambush at the west foot of Ji Gong Mountain, and Zhao Hu led his troops to approach the north gate of Dengzhou City. At this time, the gate of Dengzhou City opened unexpectedly, and countless carriages and horses rushed out of the city gate.
At this time, leave the city and take refuge.
The lurking sentinel then came out of the city to report the situation in Dengzhou City. Zhao Hu couldn't laugh or cry after hearing this:
Before the enemy army came, Dengzhou City had already prepared a battle. In the middle of the night, they opened the city gate and let people flee. No one knows how many soldiers were trapped in it, and they fled with them.
If people are incompetent and unable to use it, even an impregnable city cannot be defended. The so-called collapse of a thousand miles is nothing more than that.
Whether you can fight or not, whether you are elite or not, the key lies in the people - think about the time when the refugee army with shabby possessions could still fight thousands of miles, attack cities and seize territory, causing the fall of large cities in the hinterland of the Central Plains. Liu Miaozhen relied on old and weak soldiers to guard Huaiyang.
Chen Zhihu was told not to dare to attack by force. This cannot be regarded as a blessing. In fact, except for the limited elites, the general military equipment in the general area was too depleted.
There are already 100,000 elites available in Huaidong, and there are also 120,000 to 30,000 reserve soldiers in the engineering camp, which supports almost half of South Vietnam. In the past, Zhao Hu felt that Huaidong was still weak and his ambitions should not be exposed too early, but it seems
When facing the enemy in Dengzhou City, the situation was so unbearable. Thinking that in the past few years, the imperial troops and horses seemed to have only been responsible for abandoning troops, armor, cities and land. Zhao Hu felt that there was no need for Huaidong to fight again.
It all depends on the court's face.
Zhao Hu had a headache before, how to convince the defenders to open the city gate and let them in, but now he no longer has to worry about this matter - Zhao Hu ordered the people around him: "Light the torches..."
The people in the city begged the defenders to open the city. He was quite young, tall and thin, with a dark face and looked strong and strong.
"Liu Yefei, the prefect of Dengzhou, has surrendered to the enemy, do you know?" Zhao Hu asked Liang Shou and Shi Anjin with a serious face.
At this moment, Chen Enze came over and heard Zhao Hu questioning Liang Shou and Shi Anjin.
Zhao Hu was quite surprised. He asked Liang Shou and Shi Anjin to retreat first, and then asked Chen Enze: "Have the affairs of Swordfish Village been settled?"
"Mr. Gao has already entered the city. Hu Yu'er is really trustworthy and did not add any trouble at the critical moment..." Chen Enze said.
"I'm really worried that your little boy wants to show off your talent. If Hu Yuer is unreliable, I really won't be able to deal with you when I go back." Zhao Hu sighed, "It seems that you boys have grown up.
, no wonder adults can trust you."
Not only are the popular young men in Chongzhou able to hold important positions, Zhao Hu's two young brothers, Zhao Bao, are now serving as camp generals under Zhou Pu, and Zhao Mengxiong has also reached the age of eighteen and has been appointed as Lin Fu's bodyguard——
Chen Enze smiled and continued: "Mr. Gao expected that Liu Yifei's thousands of miscellaneous soldiers would be defeated by Master Hu, so he asked me to come over by boat to discuss other arrangements..." Between Daoyu Village and Dengzhou City
They were all broken troops and sluggish troops, and Chen Enze was about to rush over. At this time, he could only take a boat and go to sea.
"Originally I only wanted to occupy one part of Daoyu Village and Dengzhou City, but now I have occupied both places. It is really the best," Zhao Hu said, "What arrangements do you have to give Mr. Gao?"
"Mr. Gao intends to ambush Chen Zhihu's cavalry in the south of Bu Lingnan!" Chen Enze said, "Mr. Gao also said that we should not trace who colluded with Liu Yifei in the city. At this time, the most important thing is to calm people's hearts!"
"Okay, that's what I have in mind!" Zhao Hu said excitedly, "It's best if you come here. I will lead the troops to Qijia, and I will hand over the matters here to you first..." Thinking again of Chen Enze's sight of him just now
He asked Liang Shou, Shi and Jin about their situation, and explained, "We suddenly approached Beicheng, and the defenders of Beicheng dispersed in a hurry. The two of them had the courage to gather some soldiers from others to capture Beicheng - the others
Regardless, the two of them need to find out clearly that they have nothing to do with Liu Yefei and can be reused by Huaidong!"
Zhao Hu handed over all matters here to Chen Enze, leaving him with a battalion of troops to settle the situation in Dengzhou City and restore the defense of the city in the shortest possible time. Except for Chi Yuanji who was ambushing and cleaning up the mess on the other side of Ji Gong Mountain, Zhao Hu led four battalions of infantry to rush towards Qijia at the southern foot of Buling Mountain in the clear sky. Perhaps after arriving at Qijia, the generals could rest for a while before engaging the enemy again.
At dawn, Chi Yuanji sent people to escort Liu Yefei and Liu Zhiyong, who were seriously injured, and he was ordered to lead his troops to Qijia for reinforcements.
The partial division sent by Chen Zhihu to attack Dengzhou had 2,000 soldiers and horses; Zhao Hu only had four or five battalions of infantry, which were made up of soldiers from various armies. They were not the most elite combat forces in Huaidong. If they were to block the attack If the battle does not go smoothly, the casualties will inevitably be heavy, so the more troops that can be gathered at Qijia, the better.
This battle of Qijia must be fought. Repelling or even defeating Chen Zhihu's partial division will greatly delay Chen Zhihu's main force from crossing the Jiaolai River and entering Dengzhou, and in order to evacuate as many people as possible from Dengzhou. By gaining more time with supplies, we can even bring back Zhao Zhen's troops who were stranded in Pingdu and evacuate them together.