Jin Dingguo on the tower couldn't help but break into a cold sweat when he saw the opponent calling Jin to withdraw his troops. He had just faced several fierce attacks from the opponent, and he was almost unable to withstand them. If it hadn't been for the killers in black who had laid an ambush in advance, he might have let the opponent take over the city.
"Your Majesty, please let us attack again."
Below the city tower, Cheng Yong, Dong Tianyuan, Yuan Chang and other generals came to Shao Yan and begged, "These people are all brave and invincible in fighting. Everyone knows that Changqing City can be captured in less than half an hour.
But they really didn’t understand why the emperor gave up midway. This really made them feel very discouraged.
Seeing them beating their chests and stamping their feet one by one, Shao Yan said earnestly: "How can I not know what you generals are thinking? It is important to capture the city, but with the attack like just now, most of the soldiers will only die in vain. You have all just died."
I have seen that the killers in black on the tower are all ruthless. These people are obviously not ordinary soldiers. If I guess correctly, they are all dead soldiers trained by Jin Dingguo."
"This is easy, let's use the way of others to return to the depths of others." Cheng Yong stepped forward and kowtowed: "Your Majesty, the general is willing to pick a few brothers from the army to rush forward and promise to kill him without leaving any trace behind."
"There is no need to choose, let the last few generals personally take action." As he spoke, more than a dozen generals including Dong Tianyuan, Yuan Chang, Li Guangyou, Zheng Qingyi, etc. all fell in front of Shao Yan and said in unison: "Please, Your Majesty
order"
Shao Yan waved his hands without thinking and said: "It's useless whatever you say, I won't do it if I say no." Seeing that some generals were preparing to make moves in private, Shao Yan added: "If anyone dares to act without authorization, he will be dealt with according to military law."
The military orders were like mountains, and the generals could not disobey them, so they had to stand up from the ground and step aside in an orderly manner. Yunyun quietly leaned next to Shao Yan and said softly: "Your Majesty, Changqing City cannot be attacked for a long time. I am down."
I think we can try their method. Isn’t it possible that the emperor is not confident about these brave and skillful generals?"
Shao Yan shook his head and said: "It's not that I don't believe in their ability, but if this happens, even if we barely capture Changqing City, there will not be many soldiers left behind me. Cheng Yong and the others are all brave generals from the Donglin Kingdom.
, I can’t lose any of them.”
Yunyun thinks it makes sense. In her opinion, Shao Yan's subtext is nothing more than to take a longer view and not to spend all the troops for the sake of Changqing City. Naturally, this girl has nothing to say about the emperor's foresight and casually
Asked: "Your Majesty, what should we do next?"
Shao Yan lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then said decisively: "Withdraw the troops that attacked the north and south gates, and retreat five li to set up camp."
"Ah?" So surprised, the other generals were also puzzled. Although they were suspicious of Shao Yan's decision, they thought that the emperor had his own reasons for doing so, so they gathered their troops and retreated, arriving soon.
On the grass five miles away, tents were quickly erected, which looked like small mushrooms from a distance.
After several fierce attacks, Donglin's soldiers suffered casualties of more than 5,000 people, including 3,000 killed, 2,000 seriously injured, and 1,000 slightly injured. Shao Yan was shocked when he heard this huge data. The entire battle lasted less than half an hour.
, but so many people died all at once, which he had not expected in advance
That night, he personally took Cheng Yong and several other generals to visit the injured soldiers. In those small tents, he saw countless faces covered with injuries and smiling.
When the emperor came here in person, he was both nervous and happy. They got up from the hospital bed one after another. Shao Yan walked over and patiently asked them about their injuries. Most of the soldiers shook their heads and said that their injuries were not serious and they could go out to kill the enemy at any time. Shao Yan couldn't help but
Feeling very sad, when he passed the last tent and was about to return to the camp, he suddenly heard a soldier calling for help from behind him: "Help me, help me."
Shao Yan followed the direction of the voice and walked into a tall and large tent. Inside was piles of corpses of soldiers. In the center of the corpses, there was a pair of bloody hands, raised in the air and swaying, "Save."
Save me, save me”
Cheng Yong and other generals immediately ran over and pulled away a few corpses nearby, and finally fished out the soldier who was still alive. From a rough look, the soldier was not old, no more than sixteen or seventeen years old, but he was
A leg was broken due to fighting
But he saw that his face was covered with blood, his forehead was covered with scars, and his empty eyes kept wandering around. When he saw Shao Yan, he suddenly seemed to have discovered something and took the last bite.
He had the strength to turn over and said in surprise: "You - you are the emperor?"
Shao Yan smiled and nodded. The soldier's expression instantly changed from despair to surprise. He said excitedly: "Your Majesty, please save me. I thank you for your kindness." He knocked his head hard on the ground.
Shao Yan immediately asked the imperial doctor to treat him. After checking the soldier's pulse, the imperial doctor sighed and shook his head, saying that the soldier fell from the tower and his internal organs had burst. Even the gods could not save him.
Life, Shao Yan was suddenly startled, and he felt unspeakably uncomfortable.
After hearing this, the soldier cried in despair and said sadly: "It is not a pity for me to die. I just ask the emperor to agree to my request."
Shao Yan bent down and wiped the blood spots on his face, and said calmly: "Just say whatever you want, and I will agree to it. By the way, I don't know your name yet?"
"Back to the emperor, the younger one's name is Zhang Fugui, and he lives in Changqing City. Because his sister was kidnapped by Jin Dingguo, the younger one risked his life and escaped. I originally thought that I could break into the city and rescue my sister this time, but unfortunately -
-" The soldier sobbed for a moment, then continued: "If your Majesty can capture Changqing City in the future, please save my sister, okay? Her name is Zhang Yunniang."
"Zhang Yunniang" Shao Yan recited silently twice in succession, nodded and said: "Don't worry, I can swear to the Tianmeng that as soon as the city gate is breached, the first thing I will do is to have your sister rescued."
"Young man, I would like to thank the Emperor for your kindness. Long live, long live, long live." A trace of joy flashed across the soldier's face, and he knocked his head to the ground again and said.
Shao Yan smiled happily: "Is there anything else? Just tell me." At this time, no matter what Zhang Fugui asked for, Shao Yan would try his best to satisfy him, so that he could feel at ease under the clouds.
Zhang Fugui thought for a while and said to himself: "Today is the second day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar. Every year at this time, my sister and I will put up sky lanterns by the Dieyang Lake in Changqing. Unfortunately, we can't do it now."
"This is easy to handle, come here -" Shao Yan stopped mid-sentence, frowned and asked Cheng Yong beside him in a low voice, "What is a sky lantern?"
Cheng Yong was stunned for a moment. He thought the emperor was deliberately testing himself, and hurriedly said: "To inform the emperor, the sky lantern is a lantern made of paper. Once the candle underneath is lit, the lantern will rise up under the influence of the thick smoke.
"in the air"
Isn't this the Kongming Lantern? How come the name has been changed here? Shao Yan said loudly without saying a word: "Send the order, let's release the Kongming Lantern together tonight."
The generals couldn't help but be overjoyed. Shao Yan felt strange at first and secretly wondered, "On the day, it's not just about setting off sky lanterns. Is it necessary to cause such a big reaction? It wasn't until later that he learned that it was a custom here to put out sky lanterns. People used this method to
He expressed his condolences to his loved ones or prayed to heaven. Most of the generals around him were from Changqing. They missed their loved ones more during the holidays, so their actions were not surprising.
After hearing that Shao Yan agreed to his request, the soldier smiled slightly, spit out a mouthful of blood, tilted his head and died. Shao Yan sighed regretfully and asked someone to carry him down.
Buried with other soldiers
night, deep
There was no moon in the sky, only stars. The soft autumn wind blew the branches and made a buzzing sound. Accompanied by Cheng Yong and others, Shao Yan slowly came outside the camp tent, only to see bonfires rising everywhere on the ground. Several soldiers
Gathering in front of the fire, some chatted about daily life, some remembered their dead comrades, many held sky lanterns in their hands, but there was no smile on their faces.
Shao Yan walked over and asked kindly: "Everyone has put up the sky lanterns, why don't you put them up?"
The soldiers lowered their heads in despair and remained silent, their expressions became very depressed. Shao Yan was very surprised. Then he came to an older soldier and saw that he was holding a sky lantern in both hands and had tears in his eyes, so he asked strangely.
Said: "Why is this uncle so sad?"
The old soldier burst into tears, and Shao Yan became more and more puzzled. At this time, a soldier in the crowd stood up and said: "Your Majesty, it's not that we don't want to let him go, but the Liang Jun opposite won't let him go."
"What the hell, this is our place, who do they think they are?" Shao Yan realized that he shouldn't say bad words in front of the soldiers, so he quickly softened his tone and said, "Everyone, listen up, I'm the one who asked you to put out the lights.
I mean, they have no right to stop it.”
"But every time we raise the sky lanterns, they will shoot them down with arrows. The sky lanterns cannot float into the city at all," another soldier said angrily.
On the same day, he rebelled against these bastards. Shao Yan was so angry that Cheng Yong behind him cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, calm down. It's no wonder. The wind is blowing from the south today. As long as the sky lantern comes out,
It will all blow into Changqing City. In this case, Jin Dingguo will definitely think that we are inciting the people in the city to riot in this way."
Shao Yan snorted coldly: "He is judging a gentleman's belly with a villain's heart."
"Oh, look, everyone, those sky lanterns have been shot down again." Someone shouted. All the soldiers stood up and looked south, only to see a string of sky lanterns in the sky, all falling on the tower.
top
Shao Yan was angry, but he soon discovered a detail problem, that is, the direction of each lamp falling on the top of the city tower was an extremely rare phenomenon. At this time, a thought suddenly came to his mind.
He couldn't help but raise his head and burst into laughter. Cheng Yong, others and the soldiers present were suddenly shocked.