The rest of the Liao soldiers were so frightened that their livers and gallbladders were broken, they screamed and went to grab the body of Yelv Tienu.
At this time, the Liao army still maintained the barbaric rules of the founding of the country. Dutou died in battle. If the remaining soldiers threw their bodies to the enemy, even if they escaped back to their hometown, they would be captured and executed in public.
Therefore, when they saw Dutou Yelu Tienu being shot through the throat, the first thought of the Liao cavalry was not to stabilize their position to prevent their opponents from taking the opportunity to launch a counterattack. Instead, they stepped forward to snatch his body.
This move violated the taboo of military strategists.
Han Qing was originally an enemy of hundreds of people, and he had led many bloody battles, so he had accumulated rich experience. Seeing that the Liao cavalry was in chaos, how could he not seize the opportunity?
Immediately, with a loud roar, he spurred his horse forward with his sword, and with lightning speed, he killed three Liao soldiers and felled them.
The rest of the Liao cavalry were angry and anxious, and had to separate their strength to fight. Han Qing swung his sword and knocked away a weapon that was hurriedly slashing at him, and then slashed the opponent's neck with his sword.
Two cavalrymen, one on the left and one on the right, launched an outflank attack on him. He chopped down one of them first with a swing of his sword, and then quickly leaned back, keeping his body close to the saddle, and easily dodged the other man's weapon.
Before he could sit upright again from the horse, Jin Xiaochen and other veterans of the Zhenrong Army had already dealt with the previous batch of opponents and charged in with a roar. With three or two blows, they killed another Liao cavalry and the rest of the charging troops.
The Liao cavalry who came to try to besiege him were wiped out.
Yang Xu also led his servants to fight on foot. He was thirty steps away, calmly looking for the target, firing his bow and arrows.
Because he fired the bow too frequently, his arms were already a little weak, and the arrows he shot could not hit the target 100 times. However, two of the three arrows still hit the Liao soldiers' horses.
The injured war horse immediately screamed and kicked up, throwing the Liao soldiers on its back to the ground. Jin Xiaochen and other veterans of the Zhenrong Army quickly rushed over and killed the fallen man one by one with a knife.
The numerical advantage of the Liao cavalry quickly disappeared, and they gave up snatching Yelu Tienu's body and rode their horses to escape.
However, the road leading to the north exit of Mijiaji was blocked by Yang Xu and his family. Their only choice was the south side.
To the south of Mijiaji, directly opposite is Mijia Ferry. In order to capture Liu Sanxia and his accomplices, this group of Liao soldiers drove all the boats at the ferry far away. Now if they wanted to escape, they could only jump into the water and swim.
This is the way to the other side.
Although Xiaoqing River has a small name, in another time and space, it once became the main channel of the Yellow River. How could the water surface be so narrow?
However, a group of Liao cavalry were skilled in bow and horse, but they were not good at water at all. After escaping to the ferry, they faced the rolling river water, and they all wanted to cry without tears.
"Dismount and surrender, Rao Er will not die!" Jin Xiaochen led the veterans of the Zhenrong Army and Yang's family members to chase them to the river bank, and shouted an order to the last seven remaining Liao soldiers.
Those seven remnant soldiers had committed murder, robbery, and all kinds of evil since they went south. Naturally, they thought that the Song people would kill the prisoners like them. They looked at each other, screamed, and rode back, hoping to fight to the death!
This was not the first time that Jin Xiaochen and other veterans of the Zhenrong Army had fought against the Liao Army. Knowing the latter's temperament, they had already taken precautions in advance.
Seeing that the Liao army chose to resist to the end, everyone immediately formed a formation to fight. On the river beach, which was far wider than the street, eight people fought against seven remnants of the Liao army. In the blink of an eye, four more Liao cavalrymen were killed.
On horseback.
The last three Liao soldiers completely lost their will to fight, turned their mounts again, and fled along the river bank. Yang Xu's servants chased them from behind, opened their bows and fired arrows, and shot them one by one on the saddle.
Han Qing had not received any special training in formation fighting, so he rationally gave up and dealt the last blow to the remaining enemy. He pulled the reins of the war horse and looked at it for a few times to confirm that Jin Xiaochen and others would not suffer, then turned around and walked towards the enemy who was too tired to lift.
Yang Xu raised his arms.
Back on the Yongxing Military Road, Han Qing was pursued by both the government and the Red Lotus Sect. Yang Xu was ordered to capture him and bring him to justice. After finding him, he only forced him to swear that he had not committed any of the evil deeds listed on the wanted order.
Then he collected his team and left.
Although this move seemed like he was just fooling around with his temper, it actually put Yang Xu's own future on the line.
If Han Qing's case is turned into a solid case, even if Yang Xu is protected by his grandfather Yang Si, at most he will not be held accountable. If he wants to be promoted to another official position, there is basically no hope in this life.
Although Han Qing never thanked Yang Xu for this incident, he kept this favor firmly in his heart.
Today, in the midst of the bloody storm, I reunited with my good friend again. How could Han Qing not be excited? In an instant, thousands of words came to her mouth, but she didn't know which sentence to start with.
"Don't expect me to thank you, and don't expect me to call myself a lower official! I am a military commander and you are a civil servant. We are not from the same government office." At this moment, Yang Xu was also very excited, but he forced himself to
Chically, he waved the bow in his hand and shouted a warning.
"Who dares to be your boss Yang Jiming?" Han Qing was so amused that he burst out laughing. In an instant, his thoughts and words were as smooth as river water, "I was afraid that you would poke holes in the future and ask me to fill them for you! As for thanking you,
Even without you today, I still have to fight these Liao beasts to the death. After all, it’s really hard to say who helped whom just now."
"Of course I'm helping you!" Yang Xu immediately smiled brightly and stepped forward without any shame, grabbing the reins of Han Qing's horse. "If I hadn't felt sorry for you and was about to be killed by the Liao people, I wouldn't have bothered to take action."
Han Qing dismounted unceremoniously, waved to Dou Rong, and asked her to come with him to pay homage to Brother Yang.
Dou Rong had seen with her own eyes how Yang Xu spared her husband. She immediately jumped off her mount, walked forward on foot, folded her clothes and saluted, "Brother, my brother-in-law is polite!"
"No, no, don't be polite, brothers and sisters. I was joking with him, just kidding!" Yang Xu immediately changed his arrogant look, jumped a few steps away with his hands waved, and then bowed in return, "Brother Yu is also polite. Brothers and sisters, he
You've already become a fifth-grade criminal officer, why do you have to be his bodyguard yourself? This must be too hard!"
"Brother Shi is joking. I feel so depressed at home that I insist on going out for a walk with him." Dou Rong's face turned red when asked, and she quickly explained softly.
"Whether it's a walk or a walk, you and your wife both have martial arts skills, so you don't have to worry about wherever you go." Yang Xu simply had nothing to say and added with a smile. Then he quickly turned his gaze
Turning to Han Qing, "Why did you, the executioner of Hedong East Road, come to Hebei? Be careful that you will be caught by the executioner, who will impeach you for leaving your post without permission and entering the enemy's territory privately!"
"This place is still seven or eight hundred miles away from Zhending, so what kind of enemy territory is it?" Han Qing smiled and asked in a low voice. Then he quickly explained: "The Khitan East Route Army reached the gate of Hedong East Road and failed to pass.
After crossing the Yellow River, I couldn't stand the loneliness, so I withdrew to Daming Prefecture a few days ago. As a judge of the Crane Control Bureau, I was worried that they might have another plan, so I led people across the river to spy on the military situation."
"Oh, that makes sense!" Yang Xu didn't care what Han Qing was doing when he crossed the river. He only cared about whether Han Qing would get his pigtails pulled. "I had forgotten that you were actually in charge of such a useless thing as the Crane Control Department.
I already know the news that Yelu Longxing suffered a big loss on the bank of the Yellow River. I didn’t expect that your gunpowder can be used like this. With a "boom", dozens of warriors were wiped out!"
"It's not dozens, it's just rumors. There should be less than five people killed on the spot, and the remaining two or three should be the incompetent Liao doctors who put them to death themselves." Han Qing smiled and waved his hand modestly.
"Anyway, they all died because of you!" Yang Xu laughed, his face full of pride, "When I first heard the news, I couldn't believe my ears. It wasn't until later that I discovered that Yelu Longxing was really
I had to go back to Daming Mansion before I dared to send someone to sneak back to Zhending under the stars to report the good news to my grandfather!"
"Then why didn't you help your grandfather defend the city in Zhending? But you came here to Mijiadu?" From what Yang Xu meant, it seemed that he had been absent from Zhending recently. Han Qing felt puzzled and couldn't help but whisper.
ask.
"Both Zhending and Hejian were cut off from Bianliang by the Liao army. The Dingbian army under my grandfather's command and the Liao army under Yang Yanzhao's command became isolated armies!" Yang Xu had nothing to hide from him.
, sighed, and explained in a low voice, "My grandfather used to send dead soldiers to join the ranks of the fleeing people, and occasionally he could send a memorial to the court or make some requests to the officials. However, in the past month or so, for several consecutive days,
All the dead soldiers from Bo had gone without return, and there were only two months of rice left in the city. So, I took the initiative to ask my grandfather for help, and led twenty soldiers myself to break through the Liao army's blockade at night and rush back.
Bianliang asks for help."
"There are only two months of military rations left, so little?" Han Qing was startled and blurted out his questioning words.
According to his understanding, Zhending was one of the centers set up by the Song Dynasty in Hebei to fight against the southward march of the Liao army. The rice grains could not be said to be piled up like mountains, but at least they could supply the army for a whole year.
And now, Yang Xu actually said that there was not enough rice to feed the army for another two months. This was a huge discrepancy with what he had learned!
"The Dingbian Army originally had only 30,000 soldiers and horses, so the military provisions in Zhending City were certainly sufficient. But after the war broke out, the city to the north of Zhending quickly fell. The soldiers who defended the city who did not want to surrender and be humiliated all retreated to Zhending.
"Definitely. In addition to the people who have fled, my grandfather can't just watch them starve to death. Even if he only gives out two meals of rice porridge every day, he will suddenly have to supply more than 200,000 mouths. Alas-" Yang Xu shook his head.
The expression on his face was so heavy, "Besides, for you on Jingdong East Road, the war has only just happened a few days ago. Over there, my grandfather has been guarding the city since the beginning of spring this year until the beginning of autumn!"
The city was isolated, the troops were defeated, and countless people who fled were crying for food. Under such difficult circumstances, the three rear formations of Zhen, Ding, and Gaoyangguan were under the jurisdiction of Yang Si, who was able to protect the city from being breached by the Liao Emperor Yelu Longxu for several months. It has been created
It was a miracle! He was not a god, so how could he have the army and the people work together to defend the city without feeding everyone?
What's more, Yang Si probably didn't expect that he had been defending for so long, and the court still couldn't send any reinforcements to relieve the siege?
In an instant, Han Qing's heart brightened. He was about to say a few reassuring words to comfort his good friend. However, he heard Yang Xu sigh and continue to add, "Liao Gou has reset the road from Zhending to Bianliang.
I have no choice but to take a detour to the east. I originally planned to go around to Yucheng, ask you to borrow a boat and take the waterway to Bianliang. Unexpectedly, today I was blocked by Liao soldiers at Mijiadu again!"
"Then come with me to Yucheng. I have more than thirty clippers under my command. Even if the wind and water are against me, I can send you to Bianliang within ten days!" Han Qing was worried about his friend's worries and immediately promised in a low voice.
.
"Then I'll wait for Jiajun to send me off!" Yang Xu smiled and cupped his hands, his face full of fatigue that was not commensurate with his age, "But now the key is, how do we leave safely. Mijiadu is only 30 kilometers away from Dezhou.
More than ten miles away, if someone among the merchants and people who were rescued by us reported what happened at the ferry to the Liao army stationed in Dezhou City, within half an hour, a large group of Liao soldiers would be able to kill them.
Jiajun, you are smarter than me, so hurry up and think about what we should do next. Otherwise, if a large group of Liao troops attack, even if you and I use all our abilities, we will not be able to stop others from charging in formation!"
