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

Chapter 467: Dilemma, besieging Wei and rescuing Zhao

Standing at the top of Zhuoluo City, looking down, there were three knights not far away with their heads raised.

Zhao Tong said to Yuan Guo: "Does Battalion Commander Yuan recognize these people?"

After taking Zhuolu City, Zhao Tong ordered Shi Qian to detoxify Yuan Guo, and then appointed him as a battalion commander, nominally managing a hundred people, but in reality he had none.

Yuan Guo's eyes flashed, and he said in his heart that he must not recognize him, he must not recognize him. What he fears most now is to meet an acquaintance and let people know that he has indeed surrendered and is in the city.

After looking at him covertly for a long time, Yuan Guo breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Reply to the prince, I don't know him."

Zhao Tong said: "Never seen it before?"

Yuan Guo shook his head: "I have never seen them before. The clothes of these three people are not in the military standard, and the horse accessories are not the configuration of war horses."

Zhao Tong nodded and said to the side: "What do these three people want to do?"

The soldier who just reported the message replied: "I said I was delivering a message. I have something to ask the commander in the city."

Deliver a letter?Zhao Tong frowned. The Xixia people sent the letter. It looked like it was not from the official government. Where did it come from?Does he have any acquaintances in Xixia... It seems that he doesn't.

"Put a basket and let them put the letter in it and hang it up." Zhao Tao said calmly. Everything must be cautious at this moment. He did not plan to open the city gate again until additional troops from Xining Prefecture arrived.

The soldier shouted below, and after the three horsemen whispered a few words, one of them took out a letter from his body, raised his hands high, and slowly urged his horse to the city wall.

The soldier used a hemp rope to go down the wicker basket. The man put the letter in the basket and then slowly stepped back.

The basket was pulled up to the top of the city. After checking that there was nothing wrong with it, the soldier presented the letter to Zhao Tao.

Zhao Tong took it in his hand and saw that it was not an official letter. It was just a cover used by local wealthy gentry. After he opened it, he roughly swept it away, and a smile appeared on his lips.

The letter was not from the Xixia government, but was written by a martial arts sect called Tie Yumen in Roulang Mountain.

The tone of the letter was very respectful and his attitude was very low. Because he didn't know who was the commander-in-chief of the Song army in Zhuolu City, he was respectfully called the general.

There was only one meaning in the letter, and that was that he knew that Gai Zhucheng's prison supervisor Yuan Guo had been arrested, so he was willing to pay for the redemption of Yuan Guo. He offered a price of 5000 taels, and said that if there were other demands, let Zhuo Lacheng raise them.

Zhao Tie looked at Yuan Guo and said, "Do you know Tie Yumen?"

Yuan Guo was stunned. He had never heard of the Iron Feather Sect. He said, "My lord, I don't recognize it."

Zhao Tong asked again: "Have you ever heard of it?"

Yuan Guo thought hard for a long time and said: "The name seems like a Jianghu sect, but I have never heard of it, even when I was in the Yuan family, I never heard anyone mention it."

Zhao Tong reached out and handed the letter to him. He took it and read it doubtfully, and couldn't help but open his eyes little by little: "Your Majesty, this, this... I really don't know the Iron Feather Sect."

He didn't lie. The Yuan family was close to Jianghu, but they had no contact with the Tieyu sect. He didn't know that such a sect existed.

"I don't know why I want to redeem you with money?" Zhao Tong said.

Yuan Guo fell to his knees with a bang, looking panicked and about to make a vow.

Zhao Tong kicked him: "I told you not to swear in front of me, but I don't believe it!"

Yuan Guo got up in embarrassment and murmured: "The villain is also wondering, 5000 taels is not a small amount, why would anyone want to use it to redeem me? As far as the villain knows, except for some martial arts sects, everyone else is very poor. It’s so shabby, this little-known Tieyu Sect, how could there be so much silver..."

Zhao Tong touched his chin and wanted to order arrows to be fired from the top of the city to drive these three people away, but after thinking for a few seconds, he said: "Keep an eye on them and report any unusual movements immediately."

Xiao Bing said yes, and then he took Yuan Guo to the top of the city.

The next day, Zhao Tong finally received a secret report from Gaizhu City. Xining sent 1 people over, and Yang Zhi and Xu Ning led the troops and were currently stationed outside Gaizhu City.

As for why the reinforcements arrived so late, the secret report contained a letter from Liu Suiyun, which said that Xixia attacked Lanzhou and changed from a sneak attack to an open attack. The battle was fierce. Liu Suiyun was worried that Lanzhou would not be protected, so he mobilized troops to defend it. There is a line on the west bank of the Yellow River, so it is late.

Among the [-] troops and horses coming for reinforcements, there are [-] infantry and [-] cavalry. Their numbers have been decided. The infantry is organized into the Fourth Army of the German Army. The German Army is a regular infantry army. There was already a Second Army before, but The dissatisfied editor has gathered enough people after absorbing new recruits these days.

The other two thousand cavalry belong to Wu Shengsi's third army and are designated as the fifth and sixth guards. Their arrival happened to be under the command of Zhang Xian.

With these [-] new troops, Zhao Tong feels much more at ease. After all, if he wants to continue to attack without anyone to use them, he has no plans to recruit troops from Xixia. Within the territory, we cannot easily recruit troops.

Because his territory was too small at this time, and the party members were changeable, he had not yet fully established his reputation and established a firm foothold. No party would believe him and follow him.

In this era, whether it was Song, Liao or Xixia, joining the army was actually more of a profession. In the Song Dynasty, there were military households, and there were also specially-established soldiers with various names. Some of them were just doing errands to earn a living.

The Liao Kingdom was similar in this regard, even worse than the Song Dynasty. In the past two years, it has been constantly forming new armies. The Khitan Party, Xiang Bohai and Han people all have them. It doesn't matter whether they can fight or not, just recruit people. Among these new armies with special names, except for one Except for the Resentment Army, the others have little combat effectiveness.

The situation in Xixia is similar. The poor who have no cattle, sheep or land can only work as soldiers to earn a living. No one cares whether they are loyal or not, just collecting heads.

In fact, even in the Western Army, there are not without Dangxiang soldiers and Dangxiang officers. Those who surrendered during the war or sneaked over from the border. Because the Song Army pays high wages, Dangxiang people who are usually homeless and alone are willing to serve in the Western Army. soldiers.

As long as the family background of the Song Dynasty is innocent, they will probably accept it. Of course, there will definitely be spies among them. The current Three Kingdoms era when Song, Liao and Xia coexist, is the most popular period of spies since ancient times. The methods are new and varied, and spies are male and female. People of all ages have it, and all countries have become accustomed to it.

The fundamental reason is that whether it is soldiering as a job to make a living, or spies running rampant, there is me among you, and you among me, it is all because there is no unified country.

The chaos caused by the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. Emperor Taizu died early without completely mixing up the north and the south. Emperor Taizong had great ambitions and few talents, so he could only keep the current situation unchanged, so it ended up like this 100 years later.

It is definitely not a joke that Zhao Tong wants to recruit soldiers from the Xixia party in Xixia territory. Just like the Privy Council of Liao State is divided into north and south, more than half of the South Privy Council are Han officials, and the soldiers below are basically Han soldiers.

After the Jurchens occupied Liaodong, they recruited local troops, but they were Khitan people. Because the Jurchens had a small population, they could not occupy such a large territory without foreign troops.

The most mixed is the Western Army of the Song Dynasty, which has members of all ethnic groups. They recruit Tibetan soldiers in the Tibetan area, Dangxiang in the Xia area, and Khitans in the Liao area.

Therefore, it is normal for Zhao Tong to want to recruit troops from the ground, but it is not possible at the moment. He has not made a name for himself, and his footing is not yet stable. There will not be many party members to follow him.

Another day later, Zhao Tong was in the Dutong Department asking Yuang Guo about some family matters. Suddenly, a soldier came to report: "Your Majesty, someone called at the door outside the city and said he wanted to meet the commander."

"Huh?" Zhao Tao raised his eyebrows, why did someone call the door again?He said: "Are they the same three as last time?"

Xiao Bing said: "Your Majesty, it's not the case anymore. There are five more people this time. The three people last time were not among them."

Zhao Tong touched his chin and glanced at Yuan Guo: "Captain Yuan followed me to the city to watch."

Yuan Guo felt a little uneasy, thinking to himself that he was here to redeem his family again, right?He doesn’t recognize these people either, so why come to ransom him?Even if Li Qianshun is redeemed, it is impossible to let him go, fearing that his death will be even worse.

At the top of the city, Zhao Tong looked down and saw five knights standing not far away, but there were three people without that day. Among the five, there was an old man with white beard and hair, who looked like a leader.

Zhao Tong asked the soldiers to shout, and then the old man took a few steps forward on his horse, rushed to the city and clasped his fists, saying: "But in front of the general? Yuan Kun, the old Yuan family, has seen the general!" Yuan Guo shrank in fear at the top of the city. , hurriedly lowered his body, Zhao Tao glanced at him sideways, then showed no expression on his face and did not answer.

The old man Yuan Kun said at the foot of the city: "General, although the two countries are at war at the moment, I have come here not for war, but to redeem one of my disciples of the Yuan family. I hope that the general will allow me. I am willing to give you silver." 1 taels, as compensation for the general."

Zhao Tong narrowed his eyes and said to Yuan Guo who was squatting aside, "Who is this?"

"Your Majesty..." Yuan Guo trembled and said, "This is the elder of my branch of the Yuan family, who specializes in punishment. His nickname is Living Yama. Your Majesty, please don't agree to him. Don't sell the villain for just 1 taels." .”

"Oh?" Zhao Tong thought for a moment: "I will get 1 taels of silver, and I will be free. Wouldn't I get the best of both worlds?"

"No, no, no!" Yuanguomao said in panic under the battlement: "Your Majesty, this Yuan Kun is cruel and ruthless. He is definitely not here to save the villain. He is definitely going to capture the villain and send him to the court to receive merit."

"Catch you and give it to the Xixia court to receive merit?" Zhao Tong shook his head, feeling something was wrong. The Yuan family used money to redeem people themselves, and then gave it to Li Qianshun to receive merit. This seemed a bit unreasonable. It felt weird.

"Isn't your princess the one who came to rescue you?" Zhao Tong said.

"This..." Yuan Guo was stunned, and then hesitantly said: "I don't think it's possible. My sister is not close to the family. Even when she became the imperial concubine, she didn't take care of the Yuan family. Even if she was visiting relatives. They don’t even go to the main line, they only go back to their own homes.”

"It's so..." Zhao Tong nodded: "Then you don't plan to follow them?"

"Don't go, don't go!" Yuan Guo shook his hands violently. Zhuoluo City was safe at the moment, and he didn't want to go anywhere.

He finally managed to save his life, and he definitely didn't want to take any more risks. Returning to the Yuan family with Yuan Kun sounded good, but after getting into such a big trouble and causing such a big problem, surrendering to the enemy before the battle, asking for help and defrauding the city, it was just like rebellion. , Will the head of the Yuan family let him go?Will Li Qianshun let him go?
Everyone in the family must be implicated, let alone himself. That old dog Yuan Kun must be trying to trick him into going back and then selling him to the emperor to receive merit. This plan is so serious that he must not be fooled.

"Your Highness, I will never go back if I don't go back." Yuan Guo said categorically: "I will change my name immediately, and then change my appearance so that no one can recognize me."

Zhao Tong wondered: "You want to change your name?"

"Change, must change!" Yuan Guo nodded vigorously: "The villain will not be called Yuan Guo anymore. The villain... will change his surname to Liu. Xia Guohan's surname is Liu the most, so the villain will be called Liu Guo. His appearance... tomorrow The villain starts growing a beard!”

"..." Zhao Tong: "Your parents are still alive, how can you grow a beard?"

"Your Majesty, that's the rule of Han Dynasty. Our party doesn't say that!" Yuan Guo seemed to have made up his mind and said unambiguously.

"Oh..." The corner of Zhao Tong's mouth twitched. He had seen many people who were afraid of death, but to be honest, this was the first time he had seen someone so afraid of death.

"Are you sure you don't want to go back to your Yuan family?"

"No return!"

"Okay!" Zhao Tong smiled, then turned around and walked down the city. Yuan Guo followed behind, bending down, for fear that Yuan Kun and others outside the city would see him.

On the second day, Zhao Tong received a military report from Liu Suiyun from Hexi. The war in Lanzhou became more and more fierce. Started to attack the Song Dynasty.

This was interesting. Zhao Tong put down the battle report and walked a few steps in the middle of the ground. His eyes fell on Yuan Guo: "Has Li Qianshun planned for a long time to use troops against Lanzhou this time?"

"Your Majesty, this..." Yuan Guo said hurriedly: "The villain does not have a high official position and does not know the secrets, but it seems that he has been prepared for a while."

"Sure enough, they had already planned to attack the Song Dynasty while the Song and Jin alliance was fighting to destroy the Liao Dynasty. They wanted to take this opportunity to invade Xihe!" Zhao Tao said coldly.

He had already seen Xixia's intention at this moment. He simply wanted to take advantage of the battle there to seize the opportunity to capture the land of Xihe.

Perhaps it was precisely because of this that several nearby military divisions had already made arrangements, so they did not come here to attack and suppress him immediately after he landed in Zhuoluo City.

He disrupted Xixia's plan. If he hadn't appeared, Lanzhou would have fallen long ago, and Xixia soldiers would have entered Xihe.

At present, Zhao Tong estimates that the Xixia court may be in a dilemma. After all, Xixia's troops are not infinite. Each army has tens of thousands of soldiers, and only a few thousand soldiers. The largest number are concentrated on Huanqing Road and Xingqing. On the other side of the government, as expected, everyone is gathering in the direction of Lanzhou.

If Zhuoluo City is divided again, Lanzhou may not be able to be captured. If the troops are not divided, Xixia will feel uncomfortable just sitting and watching him occupy Zhuoluo.

Xixia claims to have an army of 30, but Zhao Tao estimates that it is actually only about 25. Only [-] to [-] can actually go to the battlefield. The number of troops transferred will definitely not exceed [-].

Just like the Song Dynasty, it claimed to have 80 forbidden troops and countless Xiangjun soldiers. However, it was difficult to gather 20 soldiers to conquer the Liao Kingdom. After all, the local area had to be guarded, and the capital had to be defended. Plus the free salary, it could be spared How many are fighting?

And Xixia is probably like this. Zhao Tong even wondered if 10 people were guessing too much. It was possible that 6 or [-] people were there.

He couldn't help but laugh. Does this count as encircling Wei and rescuing Zhao?Did Xixia's plan to invade Xihe be ruined by accident?

Xixia is now in a dilemma. After all, the long-planned invasion of Xihe cannot be easily given up, but Zhuolu City cannot be ignored. But in this situation, is there any other way besides dividing the troops?
Zhao Tong said: "Will Brother Richard go to Lanzhou?"

Yuan Guo shook his head: "Your Majesty, how could I know this? I have never seen Prince Jin before."

Zhao Tong said: "I also want you to draw a picture to show me the king, but you haven't even seen it. It's really useless."

Yuan Guo was shocked when he heard this, fearing that Zhao Tong would kill him if he thought he was useless, so he hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, although I have never met Brother Richard, I know a lot about him, so why don't I tell you to the Prince. "

Zhao Tong looked at him and smiled: "Let's talk about it then."

Yuan Guo hurriedly talked about some secret things, including the relationship between Brother Richard and Li Qianshun, how he was with the ministers in the court, and even some secrets in the Jin Palace.

Just when Zhao Tong was listening with great interest, suddenly a soldier from outside came in and reported: "Your Majesty, below the city... someone called at the door again, saying they wanted to see the coach."

"Oh?" Zhao Tong couldn't help but look at Yuan Guo: "Are you here to redeem Battalion Commander Yuan? It seems that Battalion Commander Yuan is very valuable. The last time he came, the price reached 1 taels. I wonder if he will come again this time? What's the price."

Yuan Guo trembled in fright when he heard this: "My lord, please don't sell the villain, villain, the villain doesn't want to leave with them, this time the villain... won't go to the city, okay?"

"Why don't you follow me and see who comes this time?" Zhao Tong said, "Maybe it's your Yuan family head who will come in person."

"I don't want to see it, I don't want to see it." When Yuan Guo heard the word "Master", his expression became even more frightened: "I just need to wait here for the prince to come back."

"Hmm..." Zhao Tong saw that he was so frightened that he shook his head secretly without forcing himself. After getting up, he led Suiyulou and the others straight to the city.

When they arrived at the top of the city, they saw two horses parked not far from the city, a carmine red horse and a jade-white pony. Sitting on the horses were actually two women.

He narrowed his eyes and asked the soldiers to shout. After the soldiers shouted, one of the women said loudly: "On the order of my master, I have a letter to be presented to the commander-in-chief of the army. The commander-in-chief will know after reading it."

The soldier looked at Zhao Tong, who nodded slightly, then got off the basket, and the woman put the letter in it.

The basket was pulled up in a blink of an eye, and the soldier inspected it and handed it to Zhao Tao. Zhao Tao was slightly surprised when he saw that it was actually a double carp cover.

Then, he opened the envelope and read it. After reading it, he pondered for a moment and said, "Open the city gate and let these two women in!"

(End of this chapter)