When Li Xuan spoke, he was smiling. From his smile, Qian Mengjiu could see his confidence. At this time, Qian Mengjiu seemed to feel that the young emperor in front of him had grown up and was no longer the one who needed him and him. The young scholar Liu Bagou and others pushed behind him was a monarch who could shoulder the lives and deaths of thousands of people in the Tang Dynasty.
Listening to Li Xuan speak now, you can feel the huge confidence and determination in his words, so much so that Qian Mengjiu believed that he could really lead his group of people to escape from this place and return to Huangzhu Mountain alive.
Therefore, Qian Mengjiu buried many questions in his heart and did not ask a second question.
Not only Qian Mengjiu was deeply touched at this time, but even Zeng Ziwen actually felt that Li Xuan at this moment was different from Li Xuan in the past. However, the time between Zeng Ziwen and Li Xuan was not too long after all. He didn't feel as deeply as Qian Mengjiu. He just felt that although this Li Xuan was just a small mountain emperor, judging from his current demeanor and decisiveness, he was definitely a qualified mountain emperor.
Perhaps, by following such a person, you may not be able to make a great contribution. Even if you fail in the end, your name may be left in the history books. In the end, it may be written: "During the Zhengde period, Li Xuan of Zhengtai raised the flag. During the resistance against the Ming Dynasty, he had countless ministers and generals under his command. His fierce general Zeng Ziwen led his army across several provinces and captured hundreds of cities. Everyone in the world was afraid of him..."
If you are unlucky, you may only be able to leave a few words in the local county annals, such as: During the Zhengde period, Li Xuan of Lijia Village deceived the ignorant people in the mountains to plot rebellion. The county magistrate Su Jiakang led his troops to attack him. Li Ni was defeated and committed suicide. There were numerous casualties.
And he, Zeng Ziwen, is this follower!
That's right, there were only two endings he expected for himself. One was to die as a general who became a big rebel, and the other was to die as a little-known rebel. Both endings ended with the destruction of the Tang Dynasty. as basic.
As for success, to be honest Zeng Ziwen had never imagined such a possibility.
He is not Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren, Wang Shanxu, these bandit leaders who are illiterate and have only wandered around the mountains all their lives, lacking knowledge. Nor is he Liu Bagou, Qian Mengjiu, these people who have lost their minds and want to daydream. He is He claims to be relatively rational and can see reality clearly.
If the Tang Dynasty in this mountainous valley is lucky, it will at most cause a storm to sweep through the surrounding counties. If it is not lucky, it will be defeated by the Ming army in one fell swoop.
But the possibility of overthrowing the Ming Dynasty is almost negligible.
There have been many people in history who have engaged in rebellion. There have been numerous large-scale rebellions, often involving tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of troops. But how many of them have succeeded?
As for small-scale rebellions, there are countless. Every ancient feudal dynasty suppressed several armed rebellions that could not be brought to the fore every year.
Their Tang Dynasty was just one of countless inconspicuous armed rebellions in history!
Although Li Xuan and his son shamelessly played the trick of founding the country and proclaiming themselves emperor, this cannot change the fact that the rebellion of the Tang Dynasty was just a joke in the eyes of many people.
However, there are also ways to be unsuccessful. Many things you do in life are inherently fruitless, but why do you still do them? What you are pursuing is nothing more than a process.
While Zeng Ziwen, Qian Mengjiu and others were having many messy thoughts in their minds, Li Xuan had already quickly arranged the evacuation affairs and asked everyone to prepare quickly and strive to evacuate as soon as possible.
At this time, when Cao Mingda was about to leave with everyone, Li Xuan suddenly said: "Cao Aiqing, you temporarily act as the captain of the cavalry team, and lead the cavalry to carefully control the movements of the Ming army. If there is any change in the Ming army, you must report it at any time!"
"I obey the decree!" Cao Mingda obviously did not expect that Li Xuan would suddenly ask you to act as the captain of the cavalry at this time. This clearly meant that he wanted to atone for his sins, but at this time he also knew that the matter was urgent.
, it was even more difficult to show any joy, and after kneeling down and bowing, he strode away, walked a few steps quickly, got on his horse, and went to regroup the cavalry team under his command.
At the same time, Fang Dongquan, Wang Shanxu, and Huang Xueren also took action individually and led their troops to gradually retreat. Under their leadership, the new Tang army that was still under the city began to slowly retreat.
At this time, Prime Minister Xu County on the top of the city still didn't understand. What happened to these pseudo-Tang rebels?
They just retreated from the top of the city inexplicably, and now it seems that they have suspended the attack on the city. Is it because it is getting dark, so they want to rest for a night and wait until the next day to attack in one go?
Or do you want to have a night battle?
Xu Xian Cheng thought about it carefully and found that these two possibilities are indeed possible. It is already approaching evening. Those puppet Tang rebels must be afraid of any accidents when they enter the city at this time. After all, any accidents are possible at night.
.
Similarly, those pseudo-Tang bandits may also use the cover of night to launch a large-scale siege at night and finally enter the city.
Not knowing that Su Jiakang had returned with his army, Xu Xian Cheng could not figure out what was going on outside and could only use his imagination to make random guesses.
And the more he guessed, the more frightened he became. All kinds of messy possibilities were thought of by him, and all the possibilities he thought of were not very good, except that the city would be broken.
At this moment, someone suddenly ran over from behind, leaned over and said in his ear: "Sir, the doctor said that the lead bullet fragments on Long Qianhu's body have penetrated into his internal organs, and they may not be able to be removed, and Long Qianhu's chest
The wound on the wound has been bleeding non-stop, and the doctor said I'm afraid it won't last long!"
Hearing what his subordinates said, Xu Xian Cheng frowned and did not think about whether the puppet Tang rebel army would attack the city at night or whether they would attack the city tomorrow. He went to see Long Dajun first.
Let’s talk about the situation on the side.
When he walked to a hall behind the city gate building, the first thing he saw was Long Dajun, who was surrounded by several doctors. At this time, Long Dajun's face was extremely pale due to severe blood loss, and he let out a cry from time to time.
A feeble moan.
Now he looks like it is extremely difficult to even breathe. The bullet that hit his chest caused considerable damage to his lungs and other internal organs. Injured lungs will naturally affect breathing.
However, although it seemed that he was outgoing more air and less incoming air, Long Dajun still opened his eyes slightly. He saw Xu County Cheng walking in, and then said intermittently in an extremely weak voice: "Outside...outside
……how's it going?"
Xu Xian Cheng did not hide anything, and immediately told what had just happened, including the fact that he sent cavalry out of the city to attack, and the cavalry of the puppet Tang rebel army followed them into the city, and finally retreated inexplicably.
After hearing what Xu County Cheng said, Long Dajun said intermittently: "They are afraid that we will ambush us in the city!"
"I'm afraid the bandit army will launch a fierce attack tomorrow, and then everything will have to be left to Master Xu!"
Long Dajun seemed to know that he was about to die soon, and he always spoke with an extremely pessimistic attitude: "The bandit army is fierce. When Mr. Xu is defending the city, remember not to waste the battle. If you lose..."
If you lose... Cheng Xu didn't hear what was said later, because Long Dajun could be said to have fallen into a semi-conscious state at this time, and his words were intermittent. It took a long time to say these simple words, but it was also a waste of time. He used his last bit of strength to say that he just closed his eyes and completely passed out.
Xu County Cheng raised his head and looked at the doctor next to him. The doctor showed a look of helplessness.
Sighing, Xu County Cheng stood up, then looked at the generals on the left and right, and then said: "Call everyone here to discuss the matter!"
Xu County Cheng, who knew nothing about the movements outside the city, summoned all civil and military officials for a discussion after Long Dajun completely passed out. Naturally, the only thing they discussed was what to do.
But after the people arrived, most of them didn't speak. Everyone was silent with a sad face. Only a few people said a few innocuous words.
Seeing this scene, Xu County Cheng didn't know what they were thinking, because he thought the same thing himself.
The puppet Tang rebel army outside the city is fierce, and the county seat may not be able to be defended. This is not only the judgment of Xu County Cheng, but also the judgment of Long Dajun, who died frequently, and the judgment of other civil and military officials in the city. .
In the previous few small battles, it can be said that the two sides did not even engage in close-range hand-to-hand combat. The puppet Tang rebels had not yet climbed onto the city to fight, but the Ming army had already suffered heavy casualties. They were shot to death with muskets on the top of the city. There were at least twenty injured archers and other soldiers.
Only half of the more than thirty cavalrymen who went out to fight back from the city came back, which meant that another ten people lost their lives at the hands of the bandits.
Later, when we were at the city gate, we were charged and killed by cavalry from both sides. Although there were not many casualties among the more than fifty soldiers guarding the city gate, they didn't know where they had fled. They probably wouldn't be able to find them for a while. return.
In other words, before the Puppet Tang thief army officially attacked the city and climbed to the top of the city, they had already lost nearly a hundred people, and half of them were the main force defending the city, the guardsmen of the Fairy Shi Qianhu Station. You have to know that there are only more than 200 guardsmen in the city, and now it can be said that a quarter of them have been lost.
Faced with such a ferocious army of puppet Tang rebels, can Zhengtai County be able to defend it?
Long Dajun, a real high-ranking general, had no confidence and almost said what he would do if the city was destroyed. In this case, you can still expect Xu Xiancheng, a civil servant, to have confidence and count on those ordinary low-level officials. Are the officers confident?
After everyone was silent for a long time, suddenly someone trotted in and lowered his voice to everyone: "I would like to inform you all, Lord Long died just now!"
After hearing this, everyone became even more silent, so that the atmosphere in the side hall was a bit depressing. Finally, someone whispered: "How about we go to Fucheng to ask for reinforcements?"
As soon as this sentence came out, the eyes of everyone in the side hall suddenly lit up, because they all heard this. The point of this sentence was not 'go to Fucheng to recruit troops', but 'us'!