The scorching sun has just set, but it is the hottest time of the day, and people feel like they are being burned by fire.
But it was at this time that Xiao Kui'an felt more comfortable.
In this hot weather, I was sweating after walking a few dozen steps, let alone breaking through obstacles with a shield and a knife to fight.
The refugee army could not withstand the hot weather, so they retreated to rest temporarily, so that the Huaihe River crossing army, which was blocked in the fence, could take a breath.
Xiao Kui'an was so tired that he felt like he was half paralyzed. He sat down in the shadow of the earthen fence. The wind blew and his pores felt comfortable. The retinue handed him a skin bag filled with water. He took it and drank it in small sips. He said he was extremely thirsty.
However, he was almost exhausted from the fierce fighting and was sweating profusely. He was most taboo about pouring herbal tea into his stomach.
Seeing Liu Tingzhou approaching, Xiao Kui'an stood up and saluted.
Liu Tingzhou pressed his shoulders and said, "Take a rest, we don't know when the bandits will attack again..." Regardless of his manners, he sat down on the ground against the cool adobe wall.
A junior high school student crawled over on his knees and asked Liu Tingzhou in a low voice: "Mr. Liu, when will the reinforcements of the Zhizhi Envoy come over? There are only four to five hundred cavalry hanging on the outside, hanging the bandits far away. They can't solve our situation."
The pressure is on. Will the installer give in to us?"
"Eat military rations, hold on to the knife in your hand, and kill a few more thieves is the right thing to do," Xiao Kui'an glared at the principal and reprimanded, "Is this what you can say? Is it what you should ask?"
Liu Tingzhou smiled slightly, not minding what the junior high school officer asked him, and said: "Zhizhi envoys are people who keep their word and do what they say. The Jiangdong left army attacks the Eastern captives in the north and traps the Fujian thieves in the south. No matter where they go, it will be unfavorable.
They sent a group of cavalry ahead to strengthen our belief in waiting for reinforcements. Of course, we must also consider that there are many bandits on the Si, Yi, and Shu rivers, so we need to give the system more time, and the reinforcements need to be large.
I won’t be here until a few days later to tell you that you must not lose confidence at this time..."
Xiao Kui'an raised his head and looked at the tops of the elm trees in the distance, through the densely spaced Youzhikou?
Since the last time a messenger from the Jiangdong Left Army pretended to be a bandit and broke in to report the news, the bandits have become much more cautious and the blockade has been tighter.
Xiao Kui'an and the others were trapped in Tuwei for many days, and they never received any news from the outside world, and they had no idea how the fighting was going on outside.
In their opinion, the Jiangdong Left Army should disembark from the Surabaya River in the east or the Huai River in the north. After waiting for these days, Jiangdong Left Army only had four to five hundred cavalry on the periphery. No wonder they were suspicious and overthinking.
The Jiangdong Left Army came from Shukou. No matter how difficult it was, six or seven days could not pass without seeing the main force!
In the past few days, Teng Xingyuan, the magistrate of Shanyang County, died of serious injuries, and Tao Chun was also seriously injured. The nearly 6,000 people who originally evacuated the enclosure have suffered losses of more than a third. There is no medicine or medical treatment for the injuries and illnesses, and they are lying in bed.
They were moaning and wailing in the courtyard of the ancestral hall, waiting to die; the weather was hot, and the air was full of the smell of rotting corpses. If it hadn't been for the four to five hundred cavalry of the Jiangdong Left Army who appeared on the periphery three days ago, the generals would have collapsed.
At this time, there was a commotion in the village. The battle was going on like this. They were afraid that someone below could not hold on and collapsed. Xiao Kui'an and Liu Tingzhou jumped up like a machine gun and looked into the village. They didn't know what was going on.
.
Then I saw Liu An, Liu Tingzhou’s hometown, staggering up to me, kowtowing, causing the dust to fly, and wailing for help: “Sir, since you came to Beijing to take the exam, Daqing’er has been by your side, enduring hardships and hard work.
No complaints. From Feixiaji to Siyang, it was Da Qing'er who took two arrows for you. You can't be ungrateful and let Da Qing'er be killed. The old slave has lived for sixty years, and he has lived enough.
The old meat weighs dozens of kilograms, sir, just cut my flesh and spare Da Qing'er's life. When we are about to break out, Sir, you still have to count on Da Qing'er to give you a ride..."
"Bring Da Qing'er here." Liu Tingzhou said.
Someone brought a skinny old horse, and all the green trees and grass in the village were cooked and used as military food. Naturally, there was no fodder for the livestock. After surviving these days, it was a miracle that it survived.
Liu Tingzhou came over and touched the horse's neck. The horse, which had been with him for ten years, came close to him and rubbed his forehead. Liu Tingzhou burst into tears. He resolutely pulled out the sword from his waist and cut the horse's neck. Liu Tingzhou trembled. The hand, without much strength, could not cut through the throat, and blood spurted out from the horse's neck. The old horse did not struggle and fell down. The breath exhaled from the nose was like a fan, and the turbid eyes of the horse were looking at Liu Tingzhou. .
Xiao Kui'an came over, took the knife from Liu Tingzhou's hand, and cut the horse's throat to prevent the old horse from suffering any more. This was already the last horse, and it was only enough for everyone to fill the gap between their teeth. Jiangdong Zuojun also returned If we don't come to help, will we really start cannibalizing human flesh as Liu An said?
As soon as the dead horse was carried down, the lookout on the top of the small watchtower in the stockade excitedly shouted down: "Reinforcements, reinforcements, in the north! Reinforcements are coming from the north."
Liu Tingzhou ignored the horse blood on his body and looked at each other with Xiao Kui'an, unable to believe the news: How could there be reinforcements coming from the north?
No matter what Liu Tingzhou and Xiao Kui'an did, the generals in the village became excited as if they had taken a thousand-year-old ginseng tonic. They found a nearby high place and climbed up to look north. The cheers became louder and louder. The ordinary soldiers already believed that there were reinforcements. Coming from the north.
Liu Tingzhou and Xiao Kui'an hurriedly climbed to the watchtower and looked north.
Several groups of soldiers and horses were entangled together and surged toward the south, like a mighty flood flowing across the wilderness, wading through hills, overflowing ditches, and surrounding the woods. It was impossible to see the edges and how many people there were.
Between several groups of soldiers and horses, arrows were fired from the edges, and the horses suddenly charged and the people were still fighting. Although they were still far away and could not see the flag clearly, if there were no reinforcements from the Jiangdong Left Army in this group of people, Liu Tingzhou would be heartbroken. I thought I might as well kill myself, leaving a way for Xiao Kui'an and the generals below to abandon their weapons and surrender.
At this time, the bandits surrounding the village also quickly moved into action. They did not organize manpower to attack the village, and quickly formed a formation along a small wide ditch in the north, obviously to guard against the enemy from the north and the bandits outside the village. They also quickly gathered their wings to prevent reinforcements from hitting them from the north.
"It's reinforcements!" Xiao Kui'an said, "I didn't expect them to come from the north!"
From Suining to Siyang Village near the mouth of the Sishui River, it is 110 miles straight along the south bank of the Sishui River.
After the Sishui River leaves Xuzhou, it flows southeast at almost a 45-degree angle.
Liu Tingzhou led his Huai army to land at Feixiaji. After falling into the trap, he broke out to the northwest and was finally trapped in a village thirty miles northwest of Siyang. The actual straight-line distance from Suining was only more than eighty miles. .
Not only did Liu Miaozhen lead 6,000 elite soldiers to pursue him, but soon after Lin Fu left Suining, Sun Zhuang led nearly 5,000 elite soldiers to fight out from Suyu.
The refugee army has a large number of soldiers and few elite soldiers. However, with such a large base, 30,000 to 50,000 elite soldiers can still be gathered together. Otherwise, it is impossible to trap Yue Lengqiu's Changhuai Army in Xuzhou City with just a large group of rabble. Come.
After coming out of Suining, the Jiangdong Left Army attracted tens of thousands of the main elites of the refugee army, including a large number of cavalry, which put great pressure on them. In order to avoid excessive casualties, Lin Fu was forced to choose locations to form formations during the day and choose to break out at night. Go south.
For this distance of more than eighty miles, Lin Fu led Changshan Camp and Fengli Camp to walk for three days and three nights.
Lin Fu rode into the dilapidated stockade. There were black and smelly blood stains everywhere inside and outside the stockade, and broken arms and limbs that had not been cleaned up in time, which was extra shocking. The adobe walls were covered with arrows.
Lin Fu was happy to see it, and Zhou Pu, who followed him into the village, said: "I shot all the arrows along the way, and I'm still worried about what to do. These can just make up for some..."
Xiao Kui'an waited for Liu Tingzhou to change his official robes and come out. When Lin Fu said about the arrows, he also raised his head and looked up. In the past few days, the crossbows and bowstrings in their hands were broken, and arrows were shot in and stuck all over the earthen walls.
They can't access it either.
Liu Tingzhou's official robe was splattered with horse blood, so he found a clean green shirt and changed it out to see Lin Fu. He bowed and prostrated: "Prefect of Huai'an, Liu Tingzhou, the chief envoy of the crossing Huai army, paid homage to the envoy. Thank you very much.
If there is any difficulty, lead the troops to help..."
"I am the envoy of Huaidong, and you are my subordinates and ministers. How can I refuse to save Liu Tingzhou in the face of death?" Lin Fu stood on a mound and accepted Liu Tingzhou's worship. He did not expect to save Liu Tingzhou.
If he comes back, he will be grateful and forget about his court and his king. Lin Fu raised his hands and said to the generals of the Huaihe Army who were surrounding the village, "Generals, you are suffering here. I want to talk too much."
Let me ask, have you ever been worried that you are trapped here, but the Jiangdong Left Army is like a coward, not daring to come to your aid?"
"Never!"
"Never!"
"Never!"
The following responses were overwhelming.
Lin Fu smiled faintly, waved his hand, and said: "Whether you have been worried or not, I can tell you today that you can rest assured from today on. I, Lin Fu, will not treat you to death."
Save, just let it go!"
Lin Fu delivered another eloquent speech, which aroused the morale of the remaining soldiers of the Huaihe River Crossing Army. They completely forgot that although the Jiangdong Left Army broke in, it also increased the number of refugees' troops outside to nearly 30,000.
Although Liu Tingzhou was grateful to Lin Fu for leading his troops to the rescue, seeing that Lin Fu had not forgotten to win over the generals of the Huaihe River crossing after entering the village, he became more and more convinced that if the situation continued, no one would be able to curb Lin Fu's ambition to be a tyrant.