"I said Mr. Qian, when you run the state prison, you don't even think about keeping this cell in good order. Look at the air leakage on the four walls now, which makes us freeze to death!" Wang Gaoxing took pleasure in the hardships.
, Qian Zerui joked, shivering with cold just like a quail huddled in a haystack.
"There was so much fuss just now, why is there no movement now?" Qian Zerui raised his head and asked an official who was standing on tiptoes looking out of the small ventilation window.
"The jailers seem to have been dispersed. A few people escaped just now. Now there is no one in the yard behind. It seems that there are more people coming into the city than Qian Langjun expected," then
The official was tall and thin. He folded everyone's bedding under his feet, so he could barely see the love outside the small window. He turned around in confusion and asked: "But it's strange to say, Wang Langjun, Qian Langjun
, where do you think these soldiers and horses came from, and they rushed into the city all at once? Was it the Yin Junhou of Xinzhou or the Wenjun Marquis of Taiyuan who sent troops to help? Or maybe Liu Linggong and the Shaoxiang were not captured at all.
After annihilating everyone, turning defeat into victory, and sending troops back to Lanzhou to kill them?"
"How come they are not soldiers and horses killed by Shuozhou?" Qian Zerui asked.
"Shuozhou?" the official said with a smile, "Shuozhou can't even protect itself. Besides, that guy is both a wild tiger and a yaksha fox. Who knows where he comes from. If it's like the rumors, he would have probably surrendered to the enemy before Cao Shixiong!"
At this time, there was a banging sound on the door outside. Qian Zerui dragged his weak body, Wang Gaoxing and the others walked to the cell door, squeezed their heads and looked to the side of the corridor, and saw a group of people whose clothes were stained with blood.
The soldiers rushed straight in.
The leader, a tall and thick military officer, held a bloody straight-ridged knife in his hand. He grabbed the trembling cell leader who was begging for mercy. He didn't see him asking any questions. He just stabbed the prison leader's chest with a knife. The white knife went in and turned red.
The knife came out, and then he pointed it at the two lame old soldiers: "Open all the cells; in addition, Wang Gaoxing, Wang Langjun, Qian Zerui, Qian Langjun, as well as all the Caosi, the Langjun of the Military and Horse Supervisor Division
, but who is in the cell over here?"
"Wang and Qian Langjun are here. May I ask this military lord which general led the troops back to Kelan City?" Wang Gaoxing squeezed his hand from the gate and greeted him politely.
"My military lord is Xu Huai, the guard general of Shuozhou. My military lord specially invites the two gentlemen to go to the state government office to discuss matters..." Zhong Jitang dragged an old prisoner to the cell and urged him to get the key and unlock the cell.
After opening it, he immediately decided to send a few people to escort the shocked Wang Gaoxing first, while Qian Zerui went to the state government office first.
Wang Gaoxing, Qian Zerui and others were all shocked. Qian Zerui's previous statement that it might be Shuozhou soldiers and horses was just a random speculation, and they didn't think it was very possible. After all, in their opinion, Shuozhou only had one Tongbai mountain soldier.
With a full force of 2,500 troops, Xu Huai was already a loyal minister and good general of Vietnam without surrendering to the enemy. How could they hope that Xu Huai would send troops to aid Lanzhou, and Xu Huai himself committed suicide in Kelan?
Wang Gaoxing suppressed the shock in his heart and asked: "You came in, did you catch Meng Jian?"
"Meng Jian, who is this person?" Zhong Jitang asked.
"Meng Jian is the brother of Shuozhou surrendered general Meng Ping. Cao Shixiong relies heavily on him and likes to come up with evil ideas. When you came in from the west city gate, he was still in the state prison. He doesn't know where he is now.
Yes!" Wang Gaoxing said.
"We didn't see this person when we came in. You go to the state government office first. There are still people here.
We need to search." Zhong Jitang said.
The walls of state prisons are high and thick, so they are more tightly guarded than state prisons. Prison guards guard state prisons to prevent prison robbers or prisoners from rioting and escaping, and their weapons are relatively strong.
Zhong Jitang led fifty armored soldiers to kill him, and even seven or eight of them were killed or wounded before he killed more than a hundred prisoners. He didn't have time to chase down the remaining soldiers, let alone pull Meng Jian out of any corner.
Besides, their troops for the raid on Kelan City this time were too limited. Xu Huai even banned the small team of soldiers from dispersing to further disperse the troops for an uncertain goal.
Ji Zhongtang's current main task is to lead people to release all Lanzhou officials imprisoned by Cao Shixiong as soon as possible.
The main force of the Tianxiong Army was defeated in Datong. The two thousand cavalry and three thousand infantry in the Qing Shun Army were also destroyed in Datong City. In the end, only six or seven hundred people were able to escape. This can be said to be the end of the Qing Dynasty.
The last remaining elite of the Shun Army.
Whether it was the Qing Shun army or the Han people of Shuozhou, the first northern expedition against Yan was a serious loss of vitality. Similarly, Cao Shixiong saw the weakness and incompetence of the Yue court and hated the weakness and incompetence of the Yue court, causing the Qing Shun army to suffer heavy losses.
Cao Shixiong had been rooted in Shuozhou for many years, and he knew very well that if he wanted to strengthen his army and horses, he could not do without the support and consumption of local forces. Therefore, under the urging of Chihu people, Cao Shixiong had no choice but to violently attack Zhouya, and he did not hesitate to plunder and massacre Kelan.
city, but he did not give up his efforts to win over local forces.
Wang Gaoxing, Qian Zerui and other officials, as well as various court officials, Xiang army attachés, military officials and other two to three hundred people were captured in the state prison and imprisoned in the state prison. Meng Jian had no state government before, but he
He was trying to persuade some captured officials to surrender in the state prison.
…………
…………
The state prison was very close to the state government office. Wang Gaoxing, Qian Zerui and others rushed to the garden behind the state government office. Just when the defenders were ruthlessly defeated in the third round of attacks, dozens of defenders rushed into the alley in embarrassment.
Retreat.
The ground was littered with corpses, with broken swords and arrows everywhere.
The snow in the garden was trampled into shape, mixed with coagulated blood, and turned black. However, the snow in the corners was still there, speckled with blood, like countless falling plum blossoms.
In the southwest corner where Wang Gaoxing and the others came in, a four- to five-foot-high flagpole was buried. They didn't pay attention to it at first, until the flagpole shook and they looked up and suddenly saw Cao Shixiong's three sons, Cao Xuanwen, Cao Xuanwu, and Cao Xuanxing, hanging tightly here.
Everyone on the flagpole was shocked.
Looking at their struggles, Wang Gaoxing and Qian Zerui were worried that the flagpole would break.
But in the corner behind the flagpole, there were ten female relatives of the Cao family, all of whom were Cao Shixiong and Cao Shili's wives and concubines. They were tied up with hemp ropes and thrown directly on the mud-like ground.
Arrows were shot from time to time, and a temporary war tent was set up in the garden.
There is a tradition of setting up a pergola in the backyard of the state government in summer, which is to use wooden shelves, bamboo mats, and wooden boards to cover the courtyard and garden. People who move in the courtyard will be much shaded and will not suffer from the heat. The pergola is usually dismantled after the summer.
, but these materials will be found in a special place to be piled up so that they can be reused every year.
At this time, these materials are convenient to take out and build a war tent.
The generals who had withdrawn from the front line also sat under the war tent to rest, without worrying about the disturbance from stray arrows.
Wang Gaoxing and Qian Zerui also braved stray arrows and walked into the war shed to meet Xu Huai under the cover of several armored soldiers holding shields.
Dai Viet's official positions, ranks, and general titles were extremely confusing, and they also deliberately suppressed the status of generals.
As the Duke of Yu, Xu Huai's status in the army was already quite high. However, besides the commander of the army, the only thing he lacked was the inspector of Shuozhou, who was only the ninth rank.
His status was far lower than that of officials such as Wang Gaoxing and Qian Zerui.
However, no matter how arrogant Wang Gaoxing and Qian Zerui were in their hearts, they were extremely grateful to Xu Huai for leading his troops into Kelan to save them, so that they did not have to face the test of death and surrender to the enemy. They came over and bowed and saluted:
"Marquis Xu Jun, thank you very much for your help. Wang (Qian), I am very grateful! I have had many neglects in the past, and I feel ashamed. I hope Marquis Xu Jun can forgive me."
"Wang Langjun, Qian Langjun, you have suffered,"
Xu Huai returned the courtesy and asked them to stand behind a safer shield. He briefly introduced the situation of the raid and said,
"I only brought three hundred cavalry to attack Kelan City this time. Now that I have rescued all the gentlemen, I have to consider evacuating them. Do the two gentlemen have any relatives or friends in the city who need to be evacuated together?"
Wang Gaoxing and Qian Zerui were shocked and grateful when they heard that Xu Huai led three hundred soldiers and horses and took the risk to raid Kelan City.
They came to Lanzhou to serve in a different place. Although they have children in Lanzhou, Cao Shixiong still wanted to surrender them before. Their children were imprisoned in the state prison and were not persecuted. After a while, they would explain to the other prisoners.
Escort to state prison.
In addition, they have worked in Lanzhou for many years and have made some friends in the city. However, the past few days have been chaotic and they have been imprisoned in the state prison. For a while, they do not know the status of these friends, or even know about them.
Did they vote for Cao Shixiong...
"Cao Shixiong sent troops to attack the state government, and the city of Kelan was in chaos, and we were taken to the state prison. I don't know what the situation of some of our relatives and friends is now, let alone whether they are willing to follow us out of Kelan City."
Wang Gaoxing said.
Qian Zerui asked: "But I don't know when Xu Junhou thinks Cao Shixiong will send reinforcements to Kelan City at the earliest? How much time do we have in Kelan City? What is the situation of the Chihu soldiers and horses now? Liu Linggong,
Shao Xiang, are they completely defeated? Are Yingzhou and Yanmen Pass now in the hands of the enemy?"
Xu Huai looked at Wang Gaoxing and Qian Zerui's humble attitude. At least at this moment, they were grateful to him for sending troops to rescue him in time. After all, they were much better than Xun Yannian and maintained their integrity and did not surrender to the enemy.
Furthermore, Qian Zerui and Wang Gaoxing had just escaped from the state prison, but their ideas were still quite clear. Xu Huai pondered for a moment and said: "The situation facing Dai Viet at this time is so dangerous that it is difficult to describe it in full at the moment, but the two men
You don’t need to be too anxious in Kelan City. I can buy four or five hours for the two gentlemen, but I don’t know how the two gentlemen will arrange their evacuation..."
Qian Zerui and Wang Gaoxing did not panic, and their thinking was quite clear. Of course Xu Huai was willing to leave the evacuation matter to them. After all, more people would be rescued from the state prison in a while. They also wanted Qian Zerui,
Wang Gaoxing and Wang Gaoxing are most familiar with each other, so it is most convenient for Qian and Wang to dispatch them.
And he only has 300 men and horses around him. No matter how smooth the battle was before, there were still casualties. It is not appropriate to allocate manpower to trivial matters...
