Zhu Gaoxu suddenly stopped. The man who was about to be trampled by his horse had already closed his eyes and suffered death. After a while, the unexpected horse's hoof fell on him. Then the man opened his eyes.
When he opened his eyes, he saw that the man wearing a general's armor was already far away from him.
Zhu Gaoxu ordered at this time: "Quickly, let these surrendered soldiers stand up and close the city gate. We must not let King Yan's army enter the city!"
Zhang Wuji, other generals and Zhu Gaoxu's bodyguards all looked at Zhu Gaoxu. The one coming south now was Zhu Gaoxu's biological father. What did he think? Although there was nothing wrong with Zhu Gaoxu's order, who knew what Zhu Gaoxu thought?
.
Zhu Gaoxu found that everyone did not immediately carry out his order. If he was usually angry, he would have been angry, but at this time he just frowned and said, "Why don't you carry out the order?"
Several hundred households rushed to gather the surrendering troops, and then directed the surrendering troops to close the city gate.
However, just as they started to close the city gate, a rumbling sound of earth shaking was heard from outside the city gate. Zhu Gaoxu led the people out of the city gate, and saw smoke and dust billowing not far away, and King Yan's army was chasing them.
Already.
Zhu Di led the army to Dezhou and rested for a while near a post station. At this time, everyone in Dezhou knew that King Yan was going to rebel with them. From now on, King Yan would be their leader, so they were even more attentive.
Zhu Di looked at the resting army and said to Dao Yan: "Unexpectedly, Wuqiao County used the trick of suspecting soldiers before, and there were less than two thousand cavalry in the county. Alas! If he had known this, Gu would never have been so cautious.
, and now we have already arrived in Dezhou City."
Dao Yan said: "Your Highness need not be like this. Not only His Highness, but everyone did not expect that their plan of 'rewarding the army to save the country' would actually backfire like this."
"And we are not already near Dezhou City at this time. We can arrive at Dezhou City before the sun sets today. And the imperial army has not arrived here yet, so it doesn't matter."
After hearing Dao Yan's words, Zhu Di felt better and said, "But don't be careless. Let the army rest here for a quarter of an hour before rushing to Dezhou City. The sooner the better."
"Before, I asked the messengers from this station to go to Dezhou to tell the Texas guard that we have arrived. I don't know how prepared Dezhou City can be."
Dao Yan said: "Although Dezhou City is a fortified city, it is not big. I'm afraid we won't be able to prepare much unless we rob it from people's homes."
After listening to Dao Yan's words, Zhu Di was silent. After all, he was born as a prince, and he was still unwilling to harass the people when he could not.
However, 'In order for the army to rest peacefully, we have no choice but to wrong the people. I will definitely compensate the people later.' Zhu Di thought.
After resting for a quarter of an hour, Zhu Di ordered the entire army to march out again, with Zhu Di riding at the front of the army.
But not long after they got out, they saw the two people in front of them galloping over. Several of Zhu Di's guards held their hands on the handles of their swords, just in case.
However, the unexpected thing they expected did not happen, but what these two people said was more serious than what they expected: "The imperial court's counter-rebellion army has rushed to Dezhou and entered Dezhou City.
Got it!"
After Zhu Di heard these words, he felt disheartened for a moment. Regardless of whether the imperial army had captured Jinan City at this time, they had been cut off from the road to Shandong. Although they had nearly five Thousands of people, but taking down Dezhou City, which is defended by thousands of people, will definitely not take a day or two, unless the opponent has no morale. But how could the soldiers guarding the city have no morale? So they are destined to be unable to enter Shandong.
Although it is possible to take a detour from other places to enter Shandong, it would be a long detour. The imperial army could also go north to block their route back to Peiping, and then send a message to the cities that the King of Yan had rebelled and took precautions. Previously, because of Yunxi He tried to be safe, so he did not tell the cities that King Yan was going to rebel. This was how the army led by Zhu Di was able to smoothly come south from Beiping City to here.
But once the armies of both sides started fighting, the imperial court would have no doubts. It would be doubly difficult for them to break the city. Without a rear and far inferior to the opponent's troops, Cao Zhen and Zhang Wen again These founding generals of the Ming Dynasty commanded wars with almost no chance of winning.
So Zhu Di had the intention to surrender for a while. However, Dao Yan had no such idea. He carefully inquired about the current situation in Dezhou City and learned that the imperial army had just entered the city and had not yet captured all the cities. Immediately after the city gate, he said to Zhu Di: "Your Highness, Dezhou City has not fallen into the hands of the Confederate army yet, and there is still a fight."
"Hurry up and let the cavalry rush to Dezhou City. As long as we capture the north gate, we can still take back the city with our large numbers!"
Zhu Di regained some of his energy after hearing the words of the two messengers, and said: "Zhu Neng, Qiu Fu, Huo Zhen, Wang Zhen, you guys lead the cavalry and rush to Dezhou City immediately. Be sure to close the city before the Southern Army." Seize the city gate in front of the gate!"
These people also listened to their words just now and knew that it was a very critical moment. They immediately retreated after receiving the order.
However, Zhu Neng hesitated for a while and then said: "Your Highness, do you want to tell the soldiers or not that we are on Qingjun's side now?"
Zhu Di was stunned for a moment and said: "Don't tell me yet! Telling the soldiers now that we are on the side of the Qing Dynasty will easily make the soldiers think that they are rebels. They may not be able to devote themselves wholeheartedly to the Southern Army, so now it is better to tell them that Dezhou City was captured by the rebels. Now we have to take back Texas City from the rebels."
Zhu Neng took the order and went down. Then Zhu Di saw thousands of cavalry running out from the side of the formation, running towards Dezhou City at all costs.
‘But we must take back Dezhou City!’ Zhu Di thought in his heart.
Zhu Gaoxu led his troops and looked at the Yan army cavalry getting closer and closer outside the city, knowing that it was impossible to close the city gate before they arrived.
At this time, another cavalry from a thousand households rushed to the north gate. Zhu Gaoxu looked back at the less than two thousand cavalry following him, and ordered a cavalry from a hundred households to say: "Go back quickly and tell Lan Zhen that Yan's army is almost there." When he arrives, let him ignore the defeated troops in the city and lead everyone to the north gate."
Then Zhu Gaoxu said to the others: "After we are here, I don't mention the importance of Dezhou City, but several brothers also know it. So now we must do our best to guard the north gate."
"Prince Gaoyang, what should we do?" A member of the household asked, half testing and half asking.
Zhu Gaoxu glanced at him, then pointed at the Yan army in front and said, "Let's charge too!"
"Charge?" several people said doubtfully. They currently have less than two thousand cavalry, and the Yan army knew from the sound that there were at least six or seven thousand men. If they charged forward, they would probably be wiped out in a short time.
However, it seems that staying here to defend is not possible. They are cavalry, and there is no cover here. The cavalry standing still is not as good as infantry, so it is not possible.
Zhu Gaoxu said to them again: "There is still a chance of winning!", and then ordered the guards: "Bring out the banner of my Gaoyang County Prince!" Then he rushed out with his guards.
Although other people doubted Zhu Gaoxu's intentions, if Zhu Gaoxu was really actively fighting for the imperial court and was killed here, they would definitely not be left behind, so they followed suit.
While they were talking, the Yan army had already rushed to a distance of less than fifty feet from the city gate. When Zhu Neng and others saw that the city gate had not been closed, they all felt happy, and then they continued to run towards the city gate.
.
At this moment, some cavalry rushed out from the city gate and rushed towards them.
This was not beyond their expectations. The other party could not leave them alone and let them rush into the city gate. So everyone was ready for a confrontation.
But the man who led the troops towards them still surprised them: he turned out to be Zhu Gaoxu, the king of Gaoyang County!
Zhu Gaoxu didn't know how surprised they were, so he rushed over with his people. The distance of fifty feet was not that far, and everyone rushed together in an instant.
Zhu Neng, Qiu Fu and others also recognized that it was indeed Zhu Gaoxu himself, and that he was not someone else pretending to be Zhu Gaoxu. 'But isn't he afraid of leading his troops to charge and die in front of the battle?' All the generals on both sides were like this.
Doubtful.
Zhu Gaoxu rushed in front of Huozhen, who was leading the charge, and swung his knife to cut his arm. Huozhen immediately stepped away, and then subconsciously swung his knife to counterattack, but Huozhen reacted and stopped his actions in a hurry.
He parried another sword attack from Zhu Gaoxu. This time, because he suddenly changed his stance, he was able to fight it with great reluctance.
But as long as no one died, it didn't matter. Because Huo Zhen instantly realized why Zhu Gaoxu took the lead in the charge.
Not only him, but everyone else who noticed Huozhen's actions understood why Zhu Gaoxu took the lead in the charge without any worries.
Zhu Di did not give any instructions on how to respond if he met Zhu Gaoxu on the battlefield, because Zhu Di did not think that he would meet Zhu Gaoxu on the battlefield, so he had no orders in this regard. Not only him, but everyone on the Yan Army side also
I didn’t think I would meet Zhu Gaoxu on the battlefield.
But at this time they met Zhu Gaoxu. Now the generals on the Yan army did not know how to treat Zhu Gaoxu.
No matter what, Zhu Gaoxu is Zhu Di's biological son. If they kill Zhu Gaoxu here now, Zhu Di will certainly not say anything now, but who can guarantee that Zhu Di will not hold a grudge in his heart? Who can guarantee that Zhu Di will not settle accounts later? I'm afraid.
Zhu Di himself didn't dare to make this guarantee, and even if he made the guarantee, they wouldn't dare to believe it.
Therefore, they did not dare to hurt Zhu Gaoxu's life. Naturally, Zhu Gaoxu's life was as safe as wearing a bulletproof vest.
