The overwhelming barrage of sharp arrows continued to fire, leaving only a few of the Thousands of Generations clan members holding their spears at a loss. There were piles of corpses piled under the steep stone steps, and the light rain wet their gorgeous clothes.
About five thousand people were shot and killed outside the gate of the treasury. Seeing that there was no hope of rescue, the remaining people joined other soldiers and horses and attacked the east and west city gates to meet Huang Zu and Chen Sheng's troops.
Zhang Ren glanced at the scattered corpses in front of him. There was blood flowing everywhere in the cracks, on the stone steps, and on the road. He scolded him with disdain: "You dare to rebel even if you are like this."
"Yang Long, lead people to guard the treasury and kill Han Dianchen on the spot."
"yes."
Han Dianchen died in a drunken dream, which was considered a blessing.
Samoko, who arrived late with two thousand barbarians, heard Zhang Ren's order and secretly wiped his sweat. Fortunately, he did not ask for orders to guard the treasury.
"Gao Pei will lead three thousand troops to reinforce the west city, Samoko will lead the barbarians to reinforce the east city, and the others will follow me to meet the lord."
"yes."
…………
In Cai Mao's military tent, Cai Hao was named a captain and had about 300 soldiers. He only commanded the soldiers and was the most powerful one in the Cai family. Cai Hao, Cai Yu and other Cai family children were sitting and lying in the tent.
Uneasy, a soldier came in to report.
"Report to the general that the rebels of the aristocratic family were ambushed by tens of thousands of Sichuan troops outside the treasury. Pang Lian and more than 5,000 descendants of the aristocratic family were all massacred."
"Ah?" The generals were shocked, and Cai Mao breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he did not follow in the rebellion, otherwise the more than 5,000 corpses outside the treasury would have been members of the Cai family. His sister really had real insights.
"What about the others?" Cai Yu asked. He planned this incident, so he naturally knew that there were more than this number of people from the aristocratic family.
"About four thousand people escaped from the treasury, joined several other troops, and were heading towards the east and west cities."
"Are there any weapons?" Cai Yu asked nervously.
"Weapons in full order."
Cai Yu pondered deeply and said to Cai Hao: "Brother, as far as I know, the gates of the east and west cities are guarded by less than a thousand troops. Although the rebel army suffered a heavy loss outside the treasury, there is a high degree of confidence that five thousand men can capture the city gates.
Even if we can't take it, we can still hold on until Jiang Xia's army arrives.
If we add our people and attack Dongcheng with all our strength, we will definitely attack. The wealthy Huang family will also support us from outside, so there is nothing wrong. Brother, we can still take action."
The young Cai Yu did not want to give up easily for the rebellion he personally planned.
"Foolproof?" Cai Hao snorted coldly: "An ambush outside the treasury shows that Liu Zhang has been prepared. Also, the Sichuan army has 100,000 people. In addition to Fan Lixiang's 20,000 farmers and the 40,000 people who maintain order among the refugees, there are also 40,000 people who maintain order among the refugees.
Ten thousand people, but only 10,000 people appeared outside the treasury. Do you know where the other 30,000 people are?"
"I don't know, but I know that they are not at the east and west gates. The news is correct. Maybe they have been transferred to guard the surrounding counties, brother. This is a good opportunity, and you must not miss it."
"No, it won't work if I say no." Cai Mao completely believed in his sister's judgment. Huang Zu would never join the battle unless he had the troops.
"Brother." Cai Yu said sincerely: "If the clan was sure of victory or defeat, I, Cai Yu, would not go. But now the rebels of the clan can seize the city gate as long as we have us. If we don't
If we go out, the entire operation may fail because of us. Brother, think about it, if other families were cut off by Liu Zhang, will our Cai family still have a way to survive?"
Cai Mao was almost moved by Cai Yu's words, but when he thought of Cai Ming's instructions, he immediately calmed down.
"No, I said, I will never go to war without seeing Huang Zu and Chen Sheng's army."
"Brother, you..." Cai Yu looked at Cai Hao and said angrily: "Okay, okay, Cai Hao, I think you want to use your sister to climb high? Does Cai Ming think that by charming Liu Zhang, he can protect himself? Cai Xi
(Cai Mao’s father) The whole family is a coward, it’s embarrassing for our Cai family.”
Cai Yu took a sip and waved his hand: "Anyone with money in the Cai family will follow me."
Several Cai family disciples immediately followed Cai Yu.
"Come back here." Cai Hao shouted, but Cai Yu pretended not to hear him. A Cai family member stood up and said to Cai Hao, "Brother, what should we do?"
Cai Hao slammed the sword on the table: "What else can I do? Keep waiting."
After much thought, Cai Hao still felt that her sister's plan was safe. If she stayed put for now, she would be safe. With Chen Sheng, she would have a bargaining chip for dividends in the future. At most, it would only offend a few people. Cai Hao didn't care. All clans rely on their strength to speak for themselves.
of.
Cai Mao is not a hero.
Several of the Cai family's children who followed Cai Mao were a little anxious, but seeing that Cai Mao was calm and composed, they could only suppress their temper.
Not long after, a soldier rushed into the tent: "General, general, something bad has happened. The rebel army has been defeated at the east and west gates of the city and is retreating. Young Master Cai Yu is also among the defeated troops."
"Is there an ambush by the Sichuan army?" Cai Mao asked in surprise.
"No." The soldier shook his head and said anxiously: "The Sichuan army defeated more than 3,000 of us with only a thousand men."
Cai Hao pondered for a moment, although he couldn't figure out how the Sichuan army, no matter how powerful it was, could defeat more than 3,000 descendants of the family so quickly. According to the original plan, as long as these 3,000 people entangled the defenders, and waited for Huang Zu's arrival, the Sichuan army would not be able to organize a defense.
But where is Huang Zujun’s shadow now?
But no matter what, the rebels were indeed defeated.
Cai Mao grabbed the soldier by the collar, pushed him to the ground, pulled out his sword, and pierced the soldier's throat with the sword. The soldier's eyes were full of doubts, his mouth made two "gudong" sounds, and a mouthful of blood bubbles appeared, and he collapsed on the ground unwillingly.
Several of the Cai family's children all looked shocked.
Cai Mao drew out his sword and said: "This man keeps claiming to be a rebel army. Our Cai family is extremely loyal to the emperor's uncle. How can we tolerate such traitors? Don't you think so?"
Several Cai family disciples looked at each other, and quickly understood what Cai Mao meant, and immediately agreed, "Yes, yes."
"Now follow me to kill the traitors of the Cai family and kill the traitors for Uncle Liu." Cai Mao raised his sword and led his troops out of the camp. Hundreds of people marched towards the east gate.
…
There was a bloody battle at the east city gate, and Cai Yu felt that he was extremely unlucky. He led hundreds of family members to the city gate, and saw the army of the family fighting with the Sichuan army. However, when Cai Yu was about to join the battle, he only found that the elders of those family members were
As soon as the spears were exchanged, many were thrown away, leaving only a piece of wood in the hand.
The usable spears had been transferred away long before the transfer of the Cai family's treasury order to Pang Ming. The three warehouses in the treasury were full of unriveted spears.
The disciples of the clan held these weapons with iron spearheads on wooden poles. After a few swings, the spearheads came loose. On the battlefield, only the spearheads were seen flying around. A thousand elite Sichuan troops fought against three thousand clansmen holding wooden poles.
The family collapsed at the first touch.
Cai Yu was rushing behind Shizu's army. Shizu's defeated army with wooden poles came over like a tide and quickly overwhelmed Cai Yu's troops. How could Cai Yu's hundreds of men resist a thousand Sichuan troops who took advantage of the victory to kill like wolves and tigers?
, did not make a single move, and fled with the army of the world. No matter how much Cai Yu shouted, it was useless.
At this moment, the other side raised a torch, and Shamoko led two thousand barbarians to attack. The arrows rained like locusts, and they pushed back the defeated army of the family. Countless children of the family died under the rain of arrows.
Seeing that there was no hope of escape ahead, Cai Yu plunged into a side street. At this moment, another group of soldiers and horses came to kill from the front, about hundreds of people.
Cai Yu took a closer look. He was overjoyed and shouted: "Brother Cai Mao, save me."
I saw Cai Mao raising his sword, and the soldiers behind him bent their bows and strung their strings, "Everyone can kill the rebellious ministers and traitors, and shoot them with arrows."
In the astonished eyes of Cai Yu and other Cai family members, they saw Jingzhou soldiers and Cai family members in front loosening their bowstrings. Arrows were fired at them, and Cai Yu's men who were caught off guard were killed on the ground.
"Cai Hao, do you really want to betray the family?"
"Kill." Cai Mao ignored Cai Yu and shouted. The people behind him rushed forward.
The same clan kills each other, weddings, funerals and birthdays in the past, relatives who reciprocate courtesy, friends who fight cocks and play birds together, attack and kill each other, fight with swords and spears, and mercilessly insert sharp weapons into each other's chests.
Cai Mao raised his knife and cut off Cai Yu's head.
…………
In a large tent in the refugee area, the music of the piano is melodious.
Compared with the chaos in the city, the refugee camp tonight was much quieter than before. The refugees lying on the straw quietly listened to the music coming from the big tent, opened their eyes, looked at the rain curtain, and thought about their thoughts.
"Hey, General Fan, this girl playing the piano is the reincarnation of a female fairy child, right?" A bearded man asked Fan Lixiang who was sitting next to him softly.
Fan Lixiang arrived at the refugee camp at dusk. She expected to be greeted warmly, but unexpectedly Qu Lingchen took all the limelight. The refugees were all excited when they saw Fan Lixiang, but they did not dare to make too much noise for fear of disturbing the music.
.
Fan Lixiang was very angry, but she also fell into it while listening. She couldn't help but sit on the straw and listen.
The sound of the piano makes the night settle.
In the big tent, Qu Lingchen put on the white clothes and gauze he brought with him, and strummed the strings with all his heart. The graceful sound of the piano emanated from the Yaoliang Qin. Liu Zhang was half lying on the straw mat, holding his forehead with his hands, a look on his face.
Enjoy, the fingers of the other hand gently tap the mat surface in accordance with the rhythm of the piano music.
The song is over.
After a while, Liu Zhang raised his head and said, still unfinished: "I'm still a little uncomfortable, please continue."
Qu Lingchen glanced at Liu Zhang with his eyes behind the white gauze, and said softly: "I am not playing because of your illness, but so that the victims can sleep better."
Liu Zhang thought to himself, it's strange that people can't sleep like this, so he said: "There are still some refugees who are not asleep, you continue."
Qu Lingchen picked up the hand that was placed on the strings and shook it. Even though he had practiced martial arts, his body was more flexible than that of ordinary women, and he had been playing the piano all year round, his fingers were a little numb after half a day.
When Liu Zhang saw Qu Lingchen's actions, his expression twisted, and he got up from the mat and said, "I'm just kidding, you must be tired too. It's getting late, so you should go to bed first."
Liu Zhang said and stood up.
"Well, wait." Qu Lingchen stopped Liu Zhang. "I'm fine, I can continue."
Liu Zhang smiled, walked to Qu Lingchen and sat down next to him. A faint body fragrance came out from his thin clothes, which was more intoxicating than the sound of the piano. Liu Zhang said: "Why are you in such a hurry? If your finger is broken, how can you play the piano in the future? By the way.
, you still want to take revenge, maybe you can’t even take the sword."
Qu Lingchen was startled for a moment, his heart skipped a beat, he stroked the strings of the Liangqin, and said hesitantly: "Actually, I like this piano very much, and I also want to play more songs with it, not just for the sake of it.
Refugees, too, are not for you."
At that time, a Korean actress could play the piano for three days. Playing the piano by herself would probably only make people intoxicated for a moment, but her level was still far behind. Qu Lingchen also wanted to play for a while. The piano is one of the three famous zithers.
Extinct for hundreds of years, anyone who loves the Qin will fall in love with her when they see her.
"What's the point? This piano was originally given to you. You can play as many songs as you want."
"Given to me?"
"Otherwise you think I can use it myself?" Liu Zhang stretched out his five fingers in front of Qu Lingchen: "Do you think I look like a piano player?"
Qu Lingchen looked at the five fingers waving in front of him through the gauze and couldn't help but chuckle, but his face suddenly became as sinking as water.
"Forget it, I can't accept it. I just want to use her to play more songs. I just hope you won't regret it in the future and don't regret using her for me."
Qu Lingchen said, his voice full of sadness. The person next to him is his enemy. After the disaster relief is over, he will find every opportunity to assassinate him. Either he will die or he will die.
Can I still accept gifts from him now?
"What did you say?"
Liu Zhang's words rang in his ears. Qu Lingchen gently stroked the body of the Yaoliang Qin. After a long time, he suddenly asked: "Liu Zhang, why did you give me this Qin?"
Liu Zhang smiled and said: "Didn't I go to Yunmengze because of illness? After I came back, I felt a lot more open-minded, my spirit was better, and my illnesses became less frequent. This is all your credit, like you
Such an outsider wouldn’t like worldly things, so I just wanted to buy a piano to thank you..."
As Liu Zhang was talking, he looked at the motionless Qu Lingchen and suddenly couldn't speak any more. His smile faded and disappeared without a trace. After a while, Liu Zhang stated his thoughts firmly: "I hope you play the piano every day.
Listen to me."
Qu Lingchen's hand stroking Qin's body suddenly froze.
My heart felt cold.
At this moment, there was a sound of horse hoofbeats, and Zhang Ren's voice came from outside the tent: "My lord, after the affairs in the city are completed, we can proceed to the next step."
After listening to Zhang Ren's words, Liu Zhang took a breath and grabbed Qu Lingchen's cold hand.
"What are you doing?" Qu Lingchen shouted in shock. Before he could recover from his state of mind, he actually forgot to break free.
"Take you to kill people."
After Liu Zhang finished speaking, he took Qu Lingchen's hand out of the tent, mounted his horse and headed east.
…………
Huang Zu and Zhang Yun's troops, who were ambushing twenty miles away, advanced towards Xiangyang at three o'clock, but did not see the wealthy families who came to meet them. They could not march more than ten miles. Suddenly, drums were beating loudly on both sides, and shouts of killing were everywhere. The Sichuan army came out in ambush.
, Su Fei, who was commanding the troops, was frightened and retreated in a hurry, but he did not want to avoid the dust flying on the way back, and a large number of Sichuan troops came to kill him.
It was impossible to tell the number of enemy troops in the dark, and Su Fei was a water general, and land warfare was not his specialty. He was ambushed twice, and the morale of the army was in chaos. The 30,000 troops trampled on each other and suffered heavy losses.
The battle lasted from the fourth watch to the fifth watch. It was not until dawn that Su Fei discovered that the number of Sichuan troops ambushed in front and behind was only tens of thousands, and the two ambush troops combined were not more than himself.
But after fighting for several hours, running and escaping, Su Fei only had more than 10,000 people left.
Liu Zhang rushed to the battlefield with his soldiers, and stepped onto the hill with Qu Lingchen, quietly watching the fighting below. Su Fei understood the situation clearly, although he regretted that he had misdirected last night and was defeated by the Sichuan army, which had fewer soldiers than himself.
, but with these forces now, even if they cannot win, breaking through should not be a problem.
Su Fei led the army to break through the Sichuan army's formation. Under the command of the general, the Sichuan army struggled to encircle the enemy. The two sides fell into a fierce fight. Each soldier had his chest pierced by a spear and fell among the corpses.
There were corpses everywhere on the grass in the wilderness, horses lying on the ground whining, blood soaked in the grass, hanging on the grass tips like dewdrops.
This was the first time that Qu Lingchen saw a battlefield so close. Seeing so much blood, he turned to look at Liu Zhang. If he hadn't been wearing a gauze hat, Liu Zhang would have been able to see her angry face.
"Sir, did you bring me here just to see this?"
Liu Zhang looked at the battlefield. Jiangxia soldiers had numerous casualties, but the Sichuan soldiers were not in sufficient numbers to encircle them. The Jiangxia soldiers, under the command of Su Fei, broke out in one direction and finally opened a gap for the Sichuan soldiers. Some Jiangxia soldiers fled outward.
Liu Zhang looked at the Jiang Xia soldiers who were fleeing in panic, shook his head slowly, and said to Qu Lingchen: "I brought you here to let you play the piano."
"What?" Qu Lingchen looked at Liu Zhang incomprehensibly. Her mood, which had calmed down for a long time, was once again ignited by Liu Zhang's indifferent expression. She already thought that although Liu Zhang was a murderer, he had no choice but to do it for the sake of the world.
common people.
But at this moment, Qu Lingchen realized that he was wrong. How could a person who had no choice but to face such a cruel war still be in the mood to listen to piano music?
Qu Lingchen looked at Liu Zhang coldly.
Liu Zhang felt Qu Lingchen's gaze and said calmly: "The sound of Yaoliangqin can evoke sad mood. With the sound of your piano, those Jiangxia soldiers will not resist for long. If you don't play the piano, there will be more deaths here."
Many people.”
Those Jiangxia soldiers who escaped from the gap had not gone very far when suddenly a large number of soldiers and horses from the front rushed in and blocked them back.
The Jiangxia soldiers, who finally fought their way out, no longer had any strength to resist. The entire army collapsed and was surrounded and killed by the newly arrived Sichuan troops and the Sichuan troops in the wilderness.
The Jiangxia Army was in dire straits, and Su Fei shouted loudly to boost the morale of the Jiangxia Army and fight stubbornly.
Qu Lingchen looked at this scene. It was obvious that Jiang Xia's army was bound to be defeated. If the battle continued, there would only be more casualties.
Finally, Qu Lingchen took the guqin from Wang Xu.
The faint sound of the piano drifted down from the hills and into the ears of every soldier, making it extremely abrupt on the battlefield.
Those soldiers who charged desperately, those who lined up nervously to welcome the charge, those who stabbed their spears vigorously, those whose bodies were bleeding and screaming with their mouths open, the music of the piano injected into their boiling blood bit by bit, irreversibly
The ground cools slowly.
The quiet and melancholy sound of the piano contradicts and blends with the cruel battlefield.
Whether they are soldiers who are breaking through or besieging, the murderous intention in their hearts is decreasing.
At this moment, Liu Zhang waved his hand, and more than two thousand soldiers shouted: "Surrender, surrender."
"surrender."
"surrender."
The thundering sound echoed through the wilderness. Seeing that there was no hope of breaking through, Jiang Xia's soldiers lost their last bit of fighting spirit and stopped fighting one after another. They dropped their spears in groups and knelt down to ask for surrender.
In the end, only Su Fei, covered in blood, stood alone in the field and shouted, but not a single Jiangxia soldier listened to him and stood up to fight.