There were many corpses lying on the city gate of Luoyang. A few birds landed on the corpses. As soon as the scouts approached, they flew up with wings and stayed on the city wall. They turned their heads and stared sharply at the people who were sneaking over.
look.
The further they went in, the more uneasy the scouts felt.
When they entered the 100-meter mark, even the senior scouts who had fought with Zhao Hanzhang several times could not help but feel cold in their hearts.
There were dead bodies on the road, and the shops and houses on both sides were silent. The whole city seemed to have become a dead city.
"How long..."
"Shut up, divide into two teams, one team leader, you lead four people to explore west, I will continue north and come back as soon as I find the enemy."
"yes!"
Half of the southern city was dead silent, and the scouts didn't come out until almost nightfall. By this time, Ji Yuan had already arrived with his people and officially joined Zhao Erlang.
Zhao Erlang was afraid of Ji Yuan and was very depressed when he saw him. Why did he arrive so quickly? He didn't even have time to enter the city to save the emperor.
Zhao Erlang, who wanted to perform meritorious service to show off to his sister, was very depressed. He complained to Xie Shi, "I said earlier that I wanted to go into the city, but you insisted on it. Now that there are so many of us here, the enemy troops in the city must have discovered us.
"
Xie Shi said: "Don't worry, Erlang, I have ordered people to clear out the entire area of 20 miles from here to the south city gate. Enemy scouts will not be able to detect any news about us."
Before Zhao Erlang spoke, Ji Yuan nodded approvingly and praised: "Well done."
He looked at Erlang and said gently: "Erlang, how can you take war for granted? If you rush forward without knowing anything, wouldn't you put your own life and that of the entire army in danger if you encounter a trap?"
"But the emperor is still in the city. My sister said she wanted to save the emperor."
"The emperor wants to save him, but I think in the girl's heart, Erlang must be more important than the emperor. How can he ignore his own safety just to save the emperor?"
Zhao Erlang thought for a while and felt that what he said made sense, "Sister A does love me."
Ji Yuan said: "Let's wait for the scouts. If everything goes well, the girl should be here by now."
As soon as he finished speaking, a soldier ran in and reported, "Mr. Ji, your troops are twenty miles away."
Ji Yuan's eyes widened and he stood up immediately, "Let's go and meet the girl."
Another person came to report, "Mr. Ji, the county guard, the scouts sent out have returned."
Ji Yuan couldn't help but laugh, "It's just right."
Zhao Hanzhang and the others drove quickly on the road and finally arrived at the outskirts of Luoyang City before it was completely dark the next day.
There were many dead bodies on the road, and birds were pecking at them. When they heard the sound of horse hooves, they flapped their wings and flew high in fright. Zhao Hanzhang ran quickly, and they just flew over her head...
There were also wild dogs and wolves that were so frightened that they ran around and slipped into the woods.
Bei Gongchun and Fu Tinghan followed closely behind her. From a distance, the group saw Ji Yuan and others waiting in front with torches.
Zhao Hanzhang reined in his horse, dismounted and strode towards Ji Yuan.
Zhao Erlang couldn't hold himself back anymore, jumped out from Ji Yuan's side and ran towards Zhao Hanzhang, "Sister!"
Only then did Zhao Hanzhang see Zhao Erlang clearly, and raised his hand to rub his head, "Summer hasn't arrived yet, why are you so tanned?"
She almost couldn't see anyone.
Zhao Erlang said proudly: "Sister, I have wiped out all the bandits in Nanyang. Our Nanyang country has a population of nearly 50,000."
What does this mean? It means that bandits are rampant in Nanyang country. What is there to be happy about? Xie Shi slandered from the side.
Zhao Hanzhang patted his shoulder happily and said, "Well done."
She smiled and said: "Now that the bandits have been wiped out, let's focus on production and construction, especially on mulberry farming. We must work harder."
Zhao Erlang agreed immediately.
Zhao Hanzhang then looked at Ji Yuan and asked, "When did Mr. Ji arrive?"
"Kung Fu with the girl's front and back legs."
Zhao Hanzhang knew that he led mostly infantry, so he was slower than her, so she didn't mind. She asked Zeng Yue, Huang An and others to settle the soldiers first, and went to the main tent with Fu Tinghan first. After sitting down, she asked: "Luoyang
What's the situation now?"
Zhao Erlang lowered his head and said in a depressed tone: "Sister, I haven't had time to go in and save the emperor."
Xie Shi said: "The scouts who went to investigate have returned."
We also captured three enemy scouts who came to investigate, and the rest were all dead.
Zhao Hanzhang said: "Let our scouts come up and talk first."
"yes."
"The south part of the city is empty. There are only dead bodies, no human voice is heard, and every household has its doors wide open. It must have been caused by the insurrectionary army's invasion, massacre, and looting."
Zhao Hanzhang pursed his lips and asked, "How is the palace?"
"The enemy troops are all gathered at the palace gate," the scout said, "divided into two camps on the left and right, about 20,000 people."
"Twenty thousand people?" Zhao Hanzhang frowned, "Didn't Liu Cong bring 20,000 people, and Wang Mi brought 30,000 people? Where are the rest?"
Ji Yuan and Xie Shi looked at each other and said nothing.
"Check!" Zhao Hanzhang said: "Find the remaining 30,000 people."
She asked: "Can the palace still hold on?"
The scout said: "I took a closer look and saw that there were archers on the palace wall, and there were quite a few of them. The palace door was tightly closed, and there was no damage."
Zhao Hanzhang breathed a sigh of relief. She looked up and looked outside, "It's getting dark."
Ji Yuan: "There should be no problem tonight, but now they have reached the palace gate, how can we save people?"
Zhao Hanzhang was also thinking: "How are the people in other parts of the city?"
"Keep the door closed, low-ranking officials can't find out."
Zhao Hanzhang said: "Pull up the captured enemy scouts."
They were two Han people. Zhao Hanzhang could tell at a glance, "Are you Wang Mi's people?"
The scout said nothing.
Zhao Hanzhang understood and asked: "Who will ask them for me?"
Immediately, a man came out of the queue, cupped his hands and said: "I am humbled by my duty and would like to ask you questions on my behalf."
Zhao Hanzhang narrowed his eyes, "Yuan Li?"
"yes!"
Zhao Hanzhang was silent for a moment and then nodded and said: "Okay, take them down, don't kill them."
"yes."
Yuan Li immediately asked someone to drag the two of them down, and he followed them out. After a while, screams could be heard outside.
Zhao Hanzhang turned a deaf ear and said to Xie Shi, "Let's bury the pot and make rice. We have been busy all day from yesterday to today, and the soldiers were all trapped. Let them feed the horses too."
Xie Shi bowed and said, "Yes."
Fu Tinghan also stood up and said, "I'm going to see the logistics."
Zhao Hanzhang nodded, "I'm afraid it will be difficult to win the battle of Luoyang quickly. We must ensure that we have sufficient food and grass."
Fu Tinghan understood, "I will figure it out as soon as possible. Mr. Ji will also need to raise food and grass."
Ji Yuan said there was no problem.
Fu Tinghan turned around and went out. When he saw Yuan Li executing the execution, he frowned, turned his head away, and turned to leave.
Yuan Li happened to turn around and saw Fu Tinghan. He wiped the blood spattered on his face and felt the smell of iron in his mouth, so he spat on the ground. He took out a small knife and said to the two scouts.
: "Do you know what this is?"
"This is the knife I use for self-defense. One time I accidentally dug it into my fingernail and it was so painful that I realized that the knife has such a use..."
Fu An followed Fu Tinghan closely and couldn't help complaining: "Mr. Lang, that Yuan Li is disrespectful to you, why do you still want to use him?"