The Song Dynasty has been deliberate for 16 years, only to know that it is the Water Margin

Chapter 378
A few days later, Tong Guan's military reports continued intermittently.

On this morning, another military report was delivered, and Yuezhou, the capital of eastern Zhejiang, was recovered.

But Tong Guan didn't find Fang La's trace, and suspected that Fang La was still on Muzhou's side, or even retreated to the place where the incident occurred in Bangyuandong.

Zhao Tun thought for a moment with Nian Junbao in his hand, now there are only Chuzhou and Taizhou in eastern Zhejiang that have not been taken back, but these two prefectures are not big cities, and there are few bandits in them, so it will be a matter of time before they are taken back.

Although Tong Guan's side was as strong as a broken bamboo, Muzhou on this side had not been breached for a long time.

Muzhou is difficult to attack. There are many soldiers and generals are sufficient, and the Western Army is slack and has no fighting spirit.

Although these border troops are well-armed and well-trained, they are not willing to fight far from the northwest.

For ordinary officers and soldiers of the Western Army, although the border is not as prosperous as Jiangnan, there are Goulan brothels and gambling caves with which they are familiar. Shaking the cup and going to fight the rebel bandits, they are naturally unwilling.

After they received the order from the imperial court, even though they were urged by the ministers and commanders above, they still found various excuses to delay and stayed at the border for several days.

Before the fierce battle in Suzhou, it was better to have Tong Guan watching. After all, Tong Guan had a high prestige in the Western Army, but now Liu Yanqing was left after Tong Guan left, and the 2 people immediately complained.

Liu Yanqing is the general manager of the soldiers and horses of Yanyan Road, but the commander of his own side, these Western troops are not very afraid of such things.

And if the rewards and the like can keep up, and there is money to earn face, it is not the case, but after the war in Suzhou, except for the loss, there was no money at all, so they hurriedly marched to Hangzhou, no wonder they didn't complain.

Liu Yanqing has no good way to deal with them at the moment, they all belong to the Western Army, so they can't kill Liwei, and he originally has few soldiers, no matter how lazy he is, how can he attack Muzhou.

He had no choice but to write to Zhao Tun to ask for advice. In addition to respectfully asking for advice, what he said more or less meant to borrow money.

Zhao Tang also scratched his head a little bit about this matter, he can naturally guess the reason why, but he can't let his family use money to reward the Western Army, right?
The court will not reimburse him if the money is taken out. In fact, although Emperor Daojun said generously and openly in the Golden Palace that day, Zhao Tuo knew how much money was in the treasury, and he really wanted to reward him according to what Emperor Daojun said. In terms of methods, I am afraid that in the end, except for the provision of the official, the other can only be partially paid or directly in arrears.

Moreover, when the Emperor Daojun talked about rewards for meritorious deeds, not everyone and every soldier was rewarded, but he had to refer to the merit book.

Right now Liu Yanqing is selling miserably, but once he takes out the money, there is nowhere else to ask for it. The imperial court has no money for him, why should Xi Jun go to ask for it?He is a royal family, and he is fighting for Zhao Song Jiangshan Sheji, what will you want then?
What's more, the commanders-in-chief of the Western Army are not as tender-faced and thin-skinned as the princes of the two governments. They are all masters who take off their armor and official robes and dare to roll around on the floor. Borrowing money to go out is obviously meat buns beating dogs, There is no return.

In desperation, Zhao Tun could only pretend to be stupid and didn't understand Liu Yanqing's implied meaning, but he gave him an idea, asking him to surround Wei and attack Zhao, attack east and west, and first secretly raid and take down Shezhou.

After taking Shezhou, it is estimated that Tongguan's side will also decide the war. At that time, the lone city will be left in the hands of the bandit army, and the army's morale will be in chaos. At this time, it is the best strategy to attack the heart. If you shoot arrows, Muzhou will be broken for a long time.

After he replied to the letter, Liu Yanqing naturally followed suit. He built plank roads, crossed Chencang secretly, and attacked Shezhou secretly. Sure enough, he captured Shezhou in just a day or two, and then spread the news in front of Muzhou City...

Zhao Tong went to the guest room for dinner at night, and said as soon as he entered the door: "Xiu Niang, Shezhou has been recovered, you can go home and have a look."

Zhu Xiuniang looked at him, and said for a moment: "You let me go home?"

Zhao Tong frowned: "How can I let you go back by yourself, now that Zhu's family has no one in the south of the Yangtze River, and there is another military disaster in Shezhou, and the empty house and compound, naturally I will accompany you to go."

Zhu Xiuniang sneered when she heard the words, and looked into his eyes with a hint of sarcasm.

Zhao Tang rubbed his chin: "After Fang La is calmed down, Lao Taishan and the bones of many clansmen will be moved there. Ye Luo must always return to his roots."

Hearing this, Zhu Xiuniang put away her sneering expression and became serious, she didn't say anything to object, she just sat there in a daze.

Zhao Tang looked at her silently, turned around and said: "Whenever you want to go back, let someone tell me, otherwise, after the rebellion is completely suppressed, I will take you back to Shezhou, and let your clan who is the county magistrate in Fujian Let’s come together to worship our ancestors.”

Zhu Xiuniang stared closely at Zhao Tun after hearing the words, but Zhao Tun stopped talking and walked out of the room slowly.

Zhu Xiuniang bit her cherry lips lightly, seeing him go away, her slender and beautiful eyebrows were raised, if Zhao Tang did what she said, then when she saw her Zhu family brother, she would definitely tell the truth about it!
Tell your clan brother that Zhao Tun has murdered Zhu's family and killed most of the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River. Zhao Tun is ruthless, ambitious, and full of evil. The clan brother will definitely find a way to let the court know, let the world know, and let Zhao Tun be accused by thousands of people. Thousands of people reviled and died without a place to bury them.

She didn't believe that no one in this world could punish Zhao Tun. The prince broke the law and committed the same crime as the common people. For Zhao Tama's crime, a hundred or a thousand deaths are enough!

What she has to do right now is to forbear, not to let Zhao Tang see that she wants revenge, otherwise she will startle the snake and be guarded by him, which is not appropriate.

But she can't take the initiative to get too close to him, Zhao Tun is as cunning as a fox, more ferocious than a wolf, if he hides too much and acts too much, he will see his flaws, so continuing to treat him with such indifference is the best strategy.

Zhao Tang didn't know that Zhu Xiuniang was thinking carefully at the moment, but killing his father and family is a vengeance. This kind of thing may be like Hu Sanniang's reckless background, and his mental strength is not a clever one. After being repeatedly persuaded and brainwashed, he may forget it for a while.

But like Zhu Xiuniang, who has a background of a wealthy gentry, who has read poetry and books since she was a child, she knows the history and the rise and fall, and knows half of the truth. How can she forget it?Maybe there are all kinds of tricks planned in my heart, ten tricks to deal with him.

Zhao Tong sighed as he walked, this is destined to be a protracted war, even if one day his family and the court are torn apart, when they are not afraid of anything and have no scruples, this war without gunpowder smoke may not end.

But he wasn't too worried, Zhu Xiuniang had no evidence, everything was guessed by her, even if she stood in front of the whole world and shouted, who would believe it?
As for some conspiratorial methods, wouldn't it be tricky in front of him...

After Shezhou was captured, Liu Yanqing reorganized his army to attack Muzhou again, but this time he used all kinds of psychological attack tactics according to the method taught by Zhao Tuo, and the bandit army in Muzhou couldn't hold on.

Originally, they had relied on several states in eastern Zhejiang as their foundational backing, but now I heard that all the soldiers led by Tong Guan over there have been recovered, and Shezhou is also lost here, isn't it just the isolated city of Muzhou?
The defense was shaken and the morale of the army was unstable.

And there is one more important thing at this moment, that is, the grain and grass in Muzhou City are empty.

Although Liu Yanqing's soldiers were small, even with Zhe Kecun and Yao Pingzhong's soldiers and horses, there were only more than 4 people, and the city could not be surrounded, but even so, there was nowhere to replenish the food and grass in Muzhou City.

No one sent them food!They have no place to raise food!

When the gentry of Muzhou fled that day, they burned all the food they could not take away, shoveled all the young crops in the fields outside the city, and burned all the forage livestock farms.

It's not that the gentry know the tactics of fortifying the wall and clearing the field, but that they hate these demon cult thieves and don't want to leave them anything. They would rather destroy everything than leave them anything.

After Fang La came down to Muzhou, the defenders burned part of the food in the official storehouse. He once raised food from the common people. Naturally, he bought it with money, and the common people sold a lot of it to them. The food went with the army. Did not stay in Muzhou.

Until the capture of Hangzhou, the army was full of food and grass, so it was possible to stay in Suzhou and Tongguan for a long time.

But Hangzhou fell, and there was no source of supply. Fang La retreated all the way, but the food and grass became less and less, and then lost to Muzhou. Tens of thousands of people entered the city.

After Fang La fled into Muzhou with Fang Baihua, seeing that the situation was not going well, she left some troops behind and led the others back to Bangyuan directly.

There are about 7 soldiers in the city, and they are all in panic at the moment.

Outside the Song army kept shouting about the war in eastern Zhejiang, saying that all other states were lost. Although these things are not true or not, they are shouting all the time. , The soldiers were naturally flustered.

The rations were decreasing day by day, which also made the soldiers guess that the city might run out of food, so they had some thoughts of fleeing, but the city gate was closed tightly, and no one could go out.

When Fang La left, Chen Kuutong was left behind to let him learn about the military, but he was so devastated that he didn't know what to do.

A few days passed in a blink of an eye, there was not much smoke in the city, and the army began to have nothing to eat...

That day, Chen Kuutong was feeling depressed. He went up to the city gate tower and overlooked the Jianjiang River. He could only look at the depths of the river, where there was a vast white mist. There was no fishing boat on the river, only white gulls and waterfowl soaring, circling on the river, croaking. Barking.

Chen Kuutong was worrying, when General Fang Jie came up to the city and said, "Taishi, many soldiers below are hungry, some have died under the city, and some are dying. Many people have nothing to eat, and the leaves and bark are gone. After plundering and stripping them all, and even filling their hunger with mud, why didn’t the grand master order the remaining horses to be killed and distributed to the soldiers to make soup? At least we can survive these two days, and when the Shenggong’s rescue arrives, the crisis will be resolved.”

Chen Kuutong frowned when he heard the words, Fang La said before leaving that he would go back to Bangyuan to rectify and then send troops to bring food and grass, but now it has been a long time, neither the people nor the food and grass have been seen, and even Shezhou has been lost.

As for the other states and counties in eastern Zhejiang, he guessed that they might have actually been attacked by the Song army, and it was hard to say if they lost their defense. Fang La might not be able to care about Muzhou at this moment.

Chen Kuutong went down to the city full of worries and went back to his mansion. After wandering around, he went to the stables and came to his war horse. His horse was as white as snow, without a single hair on its body. It was eight feet tall and had a head and tail. One foot long, it must be a good horse.

Seeing Chen Kuutong coming in front of him, the horse's energy doubled, and "Xi Liu Liu" raised its head and roared, just like a dragon singing and a tiger roaring, shaking its head and tail, showing the tendency of jumping up and down.

Chen Goutong caressed the horse's head with his hand, and the horse stuck out its tongue to touch his hand. Chen Goutong couldn't help thinking, really want to kill the horse to satisfy its hunger?Although he didn't need to kill his own horses, if he killed all the horses in the army, then the city would really be broken, and without their mounts, wouldn't it be difficult for everyone else to escape except him and the generals?

Chen Kuutong couldn't help sighing, looked aside Fang Jie and said, "Take me out to have a look."

Fang Jie led the way and walked around the city of Muzhou. Seeing many soldiers sitting against the wall, they were so hungry that they passed by. Then they stood up vigorously.

Going to the middle of the city again, I saw people squatting in twos and threes under the wall digging out Avalokitesvara soil to eat. Chen Kuutong felt sad, and went back to the army stables with a gloomy face. , the sound is miserable.

The groom who raised the horse seemed to have heard something before, and knelt down and said, "Grand Master, you can't kill the horse. This horse has done more than people!"

Chen Kuutong glanced at him for a few times, but didn't reply, but left the stable in a trance, when suddenly a gust of wind blew, mixed with a strange smell of meat.

Chen Kuutong looked at Fang Jie, Fang Jie also looked puzzled, the two led the soldiers to follow the scent, and walked to a thatched hut in a secluded place outside the camp, it turned out that a dozen soldiers were eating meat and drinking soup there.

When these soldiers saw Chen Kuutong, they were all speechless and speechless. Chen Kuutong was puzzled, there was no food in the whole city, where did these people get the meat?

He stepped forward and lifted the lid of the pot to watch it rise and fall with the boiling water.

Chen Kuutong immediately bled to the top of his head: "Where did this meat come from? Tell me!"

The little soldiers hurriedly knelt down: "Report to Grand Master, we didn't kill these two!"

Chen Kuutong was furious immediately, drew out his waist knife and cursed: "If you dare, I will kill you first to warn the army!"

All the soldiers behind him saw that they were going to kill these people, knelt down and begged for mercy with the sound of "hula", while those who were eating in front bowed their heads without any excuse, and made a gesture of stretching their necks and killing them.

Chen Kuutong looked at the crowd again, all of them looked pale and emaciated from hunger, they hadn't had a full meal in the past few days, they were stumbling around, it was really pitiful.

He stomped his feet violently, turned around and left, and said to Fang Jie as he walked, "Pass me the military order, kill the horse!"

Fang Jie cupped his fists to accept the order, and led the crowd to the stables in a hurry.

After killing the horse, the army had a few meals, even the bones of the horse were smashed and eaten, but then the horses were exhausted, and there was still no news of reinforcements and food.

Chen Kuutong had no choice but to call all the generals to discuss the matter, and said: "There is no military rations in the city, and the horses have been killed. There is no news of Sheng Gong once he left. If he continues to guard, it is no different from suicide. I think it is better to abandon Muzhou. Don't be a good man." picture."

Most of the generals breathed a sigh of relief. In fact, they had been waiting for Chen Kuutong to say this for a long time, but at this moment, a soldier came in and reported in a panic: "Master, the guard at the south gate suddenly opened the gate. Let the Song army enter the city!"

Chen Kuutong was shocked when he heard the words, and hurriedly stood up to send an order: "Hurry up and let all the ministries support Nancheng, and drive the Song army out of the city."

Fang Jie said anxiously from the side: "Teacher, the soldiers should abandon the city and open the door to escape. The grand master can take out all the money in the city and distribute it to the soldiers, so as to encourage the three armies to move forward and paralyze the Song army. Break through with all your might." Chen Kuutong thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

When the soldiers in the city got this order, they also aroused some enthusiasm. They fought with the Song army on the south side of the city, but the Song army came with a full meal, but the soldiers guarding the city were hungry. And fight and retreat.

In the end, the soldiers defending the city were exhausted due to hunger and exhaustion. More than 7 people were killed and injured.

The number of soldiers defending the city decreased sharply, and the generals were hungry and tired, and finally dragged on to Shenshi. At this time, Chen Kuutong ordered that all the gates of the four sides of the city be opened, and the troops were divided into several routes to break out.

I saw Fang Jie waving a painting halberd and shouting in front of people: "Brothers of the Holy Church, if we don't use our strength at this time, we will all die without a place to bury!"

Chen Kuutong led the generals in the rear to cheer up their spirits, each with their own weapons, and went out of the city together.

He is a grand master with high martial arts skills. Although he can't turn the tide of the battle, he can still break out of the siege, but the soldiers who followed after him were not lucky. Now only the generals have horses, and there are no cavalry. Ding just ran away, throwing away his money all the way.

The Western Army of the Song Dynasty immediately turned red-eyed when they saw such a scene. They have come all the way, but they have not seen any oil or water. Now they are busy scrambling for gold and silver treasures, and have no intention of chasing after them.

Chen Kuutong led the generals to escape from Muzhou by taking advantage of the momentum, and after climbing several mountains, they ran straight to the direction of Bangyuan...

(End of this chapter)