"What are you talking about! Tonggu fell? Are those thieves from Tanzhou coming?"
King Hongzhou was shocked. He didn't expect the thief to come so soon.
"They are indeed Tanzhou thieves. The soldiers who escaped from Tonggu also said that the thieves came from the direction of Tanzhou."
"Where's Shen Dan?"
"Life or death unknown!"
"Ah? What...what should we do!"
King Hongzhou was shocked.
If the bronze drum is lost, it is lost, but if Shen Dan dies, how will he explain it to the princess?
This Shen Dan is the nephew of Princess Shen Linglong of Hongzhou. He is the only male in the Shen family. If he dies, the princess will be devastated.
Some time ago, due to the loss of their son, Hongzhou Wang and his wife almost went there together.
It was hard to get out of the gloom. If my eldest nephew died again, he would not be able to survive.
"Quick! Send troops to Tonggu immediately!" King Hongzhou shouted in panic.
He wanted to see if Shen Dan was dead.
"Your Majesty, the enemy's situation is unknown, so I'm afraid it would be inappropriate to launch troops rashly!"
One of the staff advised.
It's a pity that King Hongzhou no longer listens.
He ordered his men to organize their troops and horses before setting off.
At noon, the troops and horses were in order, and before they set off for the expedition, the princess came to say hello.
"Where are you going, Your Majesty?"
Shen Linglong is about forty years old. Although she is a mature lady, she can still tell that she was extremely beautiful when she was young.
Next to her was a girl who looked somewhat like her, with slim eyes and white teeth.
Today, Shen Linglong waited in the harem all day but did not see King Hongzhou come. In the past, even if he did not come to have a meal, he would come to see him.
She was a little worried, so she came to the front yard to have a look.
"Oh, my beloved concubine is here. Well... Fengxin caused a rogue bandit, and I am going to quell the chaos." King Hongzhou did not dare to tell the truth.
"Fengxin?" The princess frowned slightly.
"Yes! Feng Xin! Please go back, my beloved concubine. It's just a small disturbance, and it will take some time for this king to come out and put it right!" King Hongzhou squeezed out a smile and comforted her with a few words.
After finally appeasing Princess Shen Linglong, King Songying of Hongzhou took his troops and left Yuzhang to the west.
"Alas! I hope nothing happens to the bronze drum!"
"Aunt, brother will be fine." The girl on the side supported Shen Linglong and comforted her softly.
Her name is Shen Xiaowan, she is Shen Linglong's niece and Shen Dan's biological sister.
The old man of the Shen family had two sons and two daughters. The eldest son was killed by horse thieves when he was doing business outside the Great Wall in his early years.
The youngest son is the youngest in the family, the father of Shen Dan and Shen Xiaowan.
But he also died in this natural disaster.
Shen Dan had been working in Tonggu Guards Office for hundreds of households. After the natural disaster, he came to Yuzhang to visit and then returned to Tonggu to take charge of the overall situation.
Shen Linglong took her niece to her side and took care of her personally.
Of the two daughters of the Shen family, one married the King of Hongzhou and became the princess, and the other married Fan Xing, the censor of Jiangnan Province.
However, the Jiangnan Province Censor’s Office is in Jiangning, and contact there has been cut off for a long time.
…
"Damn it! This Song Laoqi is really useless! Changsha has been occupied by bandits, and he doesn't know whether he will live or die!"
"The rogues have all come to my territory! It's all Song Laoqi's fault for not being able to resist!"
"Hmph! Bastard! Incompetent guy!"
The King of Jiangzhou kept cursing and mumbling all the way.
Count Tanzhou Wang Songtong from head to toe.
In his opinion, if Tanzhou had not fallen, the thieves would not have come to his Hongzhou.
"This group of thieves is the same. Why didn't they go to Ezhou or Shaozhou? Instead, they came to Hongzhou, which is far away from me! Damn it! Damn it!"
"Alas! I don't know how Dan'er is doing!"
"Don't worry, Your Majesty. Mr. Dan has some martial arts skills and should be able to escape from Tonggu."
The generals and staff really didn't want to listen to the prince's words, so they hurriedly tried to persuade him.
"Oh! I hope so."
King Hongzhou sighed heavily.
After leaving Yuzhang, we headed all the way to Tonggu, where we received hundreds of defeated Tonggu troops.
Tonggu is the gateway to the west of Hongzhou, with Changjiang in Yuezhou to the northwest and Liuyang in Tanzhou to the southwest.
Originally, a defense force of 500 people was stationed here.
One hundred households is Shen Dan.
After learning about the fall of Tanzhou, King Hongzhou increased the defense force of Tonggu.
Another five hundred men were sent to Shen Dan.
The King of Hongzhou wanted Shen Dan to return to Yuzhang, but this boy refused to leave.
Shen Dan actually has some ability to lead troops.
But no matter how powerful he is, he can't withstand five thousand enemy soldiers.
Five thousand versus one thousand, not to mention a surprise attack.
Liu He took five thousand miscellaneous soldiers and broke them into pieces, pretending to be refugees and sneaked into Tonggu.
Entering Tonggu County, they suddenly set fire to cause trouble at night.
Shen Dan was caught off guard.
In addition, the defenders like Tonggu have no actual combat capabilities.
They were not as good as the Tanzhou bandits who had already fought two or three battles, so they did not last long before they were completely defeated.
…
It was three hundred miles from Yuzhang to Tonggu. When Songtong, the king of Hongzhou, received the news of the fall of Tonggu, Tonggu had actually fallen for three or four days.
He came out again with a large group of people, but within five or six days they could not reach Tonggu.
At this time, more than 300 strong men were gathering together at the foot of Tianzhu Peak in the east of Tonggu County.
"Sir, we only have more than 300 brothers. Do you still want to take back the bronze drum? Let me just run to Yuzhang for our lives!"
"Yes! There are too few of us. There are at least three to five thousand thieves. How can we fight them?"
The young men all have a pessimistic attitude.
They are the defeated soldiers who escaped from Tonggu.
One of the young generals at the head was Shen Dan. This guy did have some strength. After being surrounded by thieves, he led more than a hundred soldiers to kill him.
They also gathered two hundred strong men who had fled on the road.
"Yuzhang will receive the news soon. I believe the prince will definitely come back to rescue Tonggu!" Shen Dan said with certainty.
"Will the prince come?"
The soldiers didn't really believe it. It took five or six days from Yuzhang to reach Tonggu.
"I will definitely come! As long as I don't return to Yuzhang, the prince will come to Tonggu!"
Shen Dan knew that King Hongzhou would definitely come to find him, so he did not escape back to Yuzhang immediately.
The Bronze Drum is the west gate of Hongzhou. If the Bronze Drum is lost, the thieves will be able to advance and retreat freely whether they advance eastward to Yuzhang or stick to the Tonggu.
Hongzhou, on the other hand, will be completely exposed to the low-sightedness of the Tanzhou thieves.
Shen Dan had some strategic vision and knew that the bronze drum must not be lost, so he insisted on staying and making preparations.
"Since your lord is sure that the prince can come, we will believe in your lord."
"Okay. Let's wait for a few days!"
The big guys were caught off guard by the thieves. Although they suffered a lot, they were still a little dissatisfied.
Now that I heard that the prince's reinforcements were coming, I no longer thought of escaping.
"We are not idle either. While the prince is not here these few days, we cannot let the thieves idle! Let's try to create some trouble for them!" Shen Dan said, looking in the direction of the bronze drum.
"Okay! Master Baihu, tell us what to do! We will listen to you!"
Shen Dan thought about it for a moment, then took a small wooden stick and laid it out on the ground:
"Starting tonight, we will be divided into three teams, each with a hundred people. We will sneak attack their grain depots, camps, and warehouses."
"Don't meet them face to face, just disturb them and set fire to them, and let them taste what it's like to be attacked at night!"