Linzhi

He Rong was able to come in time, in fact, it was because of chance.

He and Xiao Zhong led troops to the south. Xiao Zhong vetoed the idea of ​​directly recovering Chang'an. Instead, he proposed to detour to Lanzhou and go south along the Han River.Although this route looks like a big circle, in fact, both Xiangzhou and Shangzhou have imperial soldiers and horses, and they can recruit some more soldiers and horses along the way. Shao later left the capital and fled to Shangzhou, where they were all incorporated into Xie Shi, the governor of Shangzhou.In addition, Xie Shi is a upright person, and he had a relationship with He Rong a few times back then, with him around, He Rong can also entrust the rear with peace of mind.

Unexpectedly, when they arrived in Xiangzhou, Li Kuan and others had just left, leaving a chaotic Xiangzhou. The news that the Turks were about to attack spread all over the sky. It is said that the governor of Xiangzhou also wanted to follow Li Kuan and the others. He left, but Li Kuan refused and forced him to stay. As a result, the other party was afraid that the Turkic people would hang his head at the city gate like King Ji, so he disguised himself and fled secretly with his concubine. He didn't even want to be the governor.

After the Turkic people entered the customs, the flames of war suddenly broke out, and there was no communication. An ordinary letter would take ten days and a half months from south to north. Now, I am afraid that it may not be delivered in a month.Previously, He Rong and others were in Ganzhou, and they didn't know much about the situation in the Central Plains. Now they have traveled all the way, and they just realized how chaotic people's hearts have become.

But this kind of chaos is not unmanageable. In the final analysis, it is because the imperial court suffered consecutive defeats, and many people were frightened by the Turks, so they surrendered without fighting and fled. Going, the effect is extremely serious, and the effect is effective. Others think that the Turkic people are like the wind, and they will arrive immediately. Houses were closed, markets were depressed, and people panicked.

This is the Xiangzhou that He Rong saw.

He stayed in Xiangzhou for five days, mainly to calm people's hearts and clean up the mess.Since the governor of Xiangzhou fled without warning, he would naturally have no official job when he came back. He Rong promoted the governor of Xiangzhou to be the governor of Xiangzhou. This appointment should have been decided by the court, but now the government orders are somewhat chaotic, and the situation between the north and the south is unclear. , although Li Kuan supported the young emperor to ascend the throne, he has already announced it to the world. In fact, He Rong, He Zhan and others all pretended not to know it tacitly, and even pretended that they had never received the imperial edict. They also detained them and put them under house arrest. If the other party pursues them in the future, they will directly infer two from one to five, and put it on the Turkic people.

In fact, not only them, but even many local officials are not convinced of the existence of the new emperor. First, the cause of the late emperor’s death is unknown and there are many doubts; With King An and King Xing and others, and the eldest grandson of the Emperor, it is impossible for the son of the Li family to come.Many people ostensibly obeyed the edict, but in fact they were still waiting and watching, hoping to wait for the situation to stabilize before choosing to stand in line.

There are also some people who directly raised the banner of the rebel army and established the country as king.But such people are rare after all, and they must have enough courage to rebel. Although the world is in chaos, the chaos is mainly due to the Turkic invasion, which is purely a man-made disaster.The past two years have been relatively smooth, and there have been no serious natural disasters in various places. The effect of Ji Ling and He Rong's trip to Luoyang to control the river is now finally manifested. Last year, the Yellow River flooded and did not break the dam. The casualties in the area can be regarded as a blessing in misfortune.

Speaking of the mess in Xiangzhou, since King An is here, and there are soldiers and horses, everything will naturally follow the orders of King An. To be more stable, he must obey He Rong's words.

Therefore, after initially stabilizing Xiangzhou and confirming that Li Kuan would not be able to return to the carbine in the short term, He Rong and Xiao Zhong led them north when they heard that the Turks had left Chang'an. As a result, they received Xie Shi from Shangzhou just halfway The letter said that the Turkic people passed by Shangzhou, and He Rong and the others guessed from the map the most likely path the Turkic people would take, and prepared to intercept them head-on and fight a tough battle.

A large part of the soldiers under him were victorious in the siege of Ganzhou, and have never had the opportunity to make military exploits since then. As He Rong revised the rewards during the war, they watched their colleagues continue to make meritorious deeds. It is conceivable that the jealousy in his heart is enviable, but now that he hears about beating the Turkic people, he is a little less timid and a little more eager to try than others.

When they rushed over, the situation outside Dengzhou City was already in full swing.

Under the double-sided attack of Fu Nian and Li Kuan, He Zhan's situation took a turn for the worse. However, as soon as King An's banner appeared on the battlefield, the situation turned again. Vice-General Jiang was taken aback, thinking that He Zhan and He Rong had already Knowing that he would ambush here, he specially made an appointment to sing the oboe. When he thought of the conspiracy being exposed, he couldn't help but panic, and suddenly became restless.

Xiao Zhong is the vanguard of the Xiao family, a hero in the north, everyone only knows his name, but he rarely fights with him. He rushed into the battlefield with his soldiers like a dragon crossing a river, instantly breaking the battlefield pattern. Many people were caught off guard and directly He was overturned and dismounted, the infantry couldn't dodge, and was trampled under the horse's hooves. He Zhan was fighting with Vice-General Jiang when he suddenly slashed at the head with a long knife behind his back. He actually blocked Fu Nian's knife directly.

Fu Nian was a bit surprised, although he is a Turkic Khan, he has always fought in person in battles and rarely meets opponents, now someone can take his knife, how can he not be surprised?

"Fu Nian!" Xiao Zhong recognized him at a glance.

Fu Nian swept his saber across the opponent's waist and said angrily, "Xiao Chong, I have a covenant with your father!"

At that time, East Turkic and the Xiao family made an alliance, and Xiao Yu married Fu Nian's younger sister. Although Turkic women are not expensive, but there was this kind of marriage. At that time, Fu Nian set his sights on Western Turkic and Central Plains. They are very close, when Xiao Zhong escorted the dowry to Turkic, he had a relationship with Fu Nian once.

Xiao Zhong sneered: "Times have changed, I don't have to laugh with barbarians against my will, happy!"

Fu Nianhan spoke very well, so he naturally understood what he was saying, and immediately became furious, with a roar, the long knife turned into a streamer and swept towards the opponent.

Although he has broken his arm now, his fighting strength has not been reduced much, that is to say, a hero like Xiao Zhong can still fight alone with him on the battlefield, if it were someone else, he might have already died by his sword.

Vice-General Jiang and He Zhan were also fighting in full swing. Because the banner of King An appeared, He Zhan subconsciously searched for the figure of the man in the vast crowd. .

Fortunately, He Zhan reacted very quickly. He leaned back, and the gun tip brushed against his chest, but it still tore through his clothes. He Zhan felt a sharp pain in his chest, knowing that the other party's gun tip should have scratched his own skin. up.

But on the battlefield, this little injury was nothing at all. He simply took advantage of the situation to get off his horse, and slashed at the opponent's horse's hoof with his long knife.

The horse neighed and raised its front hooves, and Vice General Jiang had to jump off the horse to avoid being overturned and falling.

Without the mount under their crotch, the two of them fought hand-to-hand and fought physically. At this time, the spear could not be used. Vice-General Jiang was inadvertently cut across the arm by He Zhan, his arm trembled slightly, and the spear almost dropped.

He Zhan pressed on every step of the way, the swords and flowers were flying all over the sky, gorgeous but full of murderous aura, like the rebirth of Shura, the imposing manner forced Vice General Jiang to retreat every step of the way, and finally lost his weapon. He Zhan took advantage of his unpreparedness and wrapped his arms around The opponent's neck was dragged back, and before the opponent had time to react, the long knife had pierced his chest from behind.

Vice-General Jiang opened his eyes wide, watching the blood gushing out from his chest, the expression on his face was still frozen in shock and fear before he had time to react.

Without batting an eye, He Zhan cut off the opponent's head, then grabbed a Turkic cavalryman beside him, tore him off, then twisted the reins and flew on his horse, threw the head of Vice General Jiang high, roaring Said: "Jiang Long has given the head, who else wants to be rebellious?! King An and King Xing are here, and those who surrender will not be killed!"

"King An and King Xing are here, and those who surrender will not be killed!"

"King An and King Xing are here, and those who surrender will not be killed!"

One sound after another sounded on the battlefield, and it quickly spread to everyone's ears.

The morale of Vice General Jiang's troops was really shaken, and soon someone shouted, "I'm from the imperial court, so I won't fight anymore," and threw their weapons on the ground.

They were afraid of being accidentally injured by the people of King An or King Xing, so they hurriedly dropped their weapons and surrendered, but forgot that there were Turks on the battlefield. In the melee, those Turks who were red-eyed, who remembers that Vice-General Jiang was When they came to help them, many soldiers who surrendered died under the butcher's knives of the Turks, and many of the remaining people were at a loss.

He Rong did not join the battlefield, and rode a horse not too far away, frowned slightly when he saw this, and said a few words quickly to the herald beside him.

Several heralds then took the order, flew away with the command flag, and shouted: "King An has an order. Those who kill the Turks will be punished for their merits. Killing one is worth a hundred, and the past will not be blamed!"

When He Zhan heard the phrase "King An has a life", his heart skipped a beat and he was almost hit by the enemy's surprise attack. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and escaped with his physical instinct.

The fight between Xiao Zhong and Fu Nian was still going on, Xiao Chong didn't expect Fu Nian to be so strong after losing his arm, the two fought for hundreds of rounds, he already felt a little tired, the opponent's strength was still weak It didn't seem to weaken at all, instead of weakening by half, it became stronger and stronger. Xiao Zhong almost couldn't catch it several times, and he had already suffered several wounds on his body, and the blood hadn't dried up.

This is the true strength of Turkic Khan!

Xiao Chong had long heard that Fu Nian was the most powerful warrior on the grassland, and in the process of fighting for the throne with his uncles and brothers, he did many things by himself. Like sweeping across the entire Turkic, beheading the most powerful general of the Western Turkic, the Turkic people worship the strong, so he was able to unify the Turkic so quickly, and it has a lot to do with his own bravery.

But when Fu Nian decided to go deep into the Central Plains, he made an extremely serious mistake.

On this question, Xiao Zhong remembered that King An once told himself and Ying Ziyu that Fu Nian had the ambition to rule the Central Plains and had the strength to match it, but there was only one most important thing missing: kingly way.

No matter how fluent Fu Nian's Chinese is, he never thinks from the perspective of the Central Plains. Everything he does is for the interests of the Turks. .

And the Han people in the world are inexhaustible. In this way, even if there is no King An and King Xing, others will rise up to oppose what Fu Nian has done. Now the rebels who have risen in Luoyang and other places in the north are the best It shows that those people certainly have their own selfishness, but in the final analysis, they are still playing the banner of righteousness to expel the Turks. It can be seen that what the Turks have done cannot last long.

Even if Li Kuan colluded with him, it would not be able to change the fate of Fu Nian, who was doomed to fail sooner or later.

These thoughts flashed through my mind, and a figure descended from the sky behind Fu Nian, slashing at Fu Nian.

The latter was being tightly entangled by Xiao Zhong, unable to get away at all, even if he felt the awe-inspiring murderous aura behind him, he could only choose the lesser of two evils, and made a judgment in a short moment, blocking Xiao Zhong's attack with his right arm Offensive, body leaning to the side, trying to avoid the attack behind.

But he forgot that he already lost an arm, and the imbalance made him unable to control his body at all. This tilt turned in Xiao Zhong's direction.

Xiao Zhong saw the timing, he threw away the spear, drew out his short knife, and pointed it at the opponent's wrist. The blade was extremely sharp, and Xiao Zhong castrated so quickly that he cut off Fu Nian's hand at the wrist.

The hand that was holding the long knife fell to the ground in an instant, no different from thousands of ordinary soldiers who died on the battlefield.

Fu Nian screamed out, his eyes were red, his face was ferocious like a ghost, blood spurted from his wound, instantly splashing Xiao Zhong all over his head and face.

"Sweat!"

A fast horse galloped towards him, grabbed Fu Nian, placed him in front of him, and almost didn't hold back, took him and galloped out of the battlefield.

The rest of the Turkic cavalry seemed to have been prepared, and they rushed over one after another, protecting the cavalry and retreating quickly.

With this retreat, the general trend was over, and when the sun went down, the Turks ended the battle in defeat.

The troops of He Rong and He Zhan were exhausted from the long journey, and it was not a wise choice to catch up, so He Zhan ordered the troops to withdraw.

Those who won did not see much joy. This battle should not have happened. Those Turkic people should have been stopped as early as in Yunzhou, and it will develop to this day. It is all due to the failure of the imperial court's decision-making. If you make a wrong move, you will lose the whole game of chess. At worst, you can restart the game, but if you lose in the world, you will lose thousands of lives.

Although Tan Jin and Xiao Chong met for the first time, they were not strangers due to their relationship with He Rong. After meeting each other, they tacitly gathered the disabled soldiers and wounded into one place, and escorted them to Vice General Jiang in batches. The surrendered troops entered the city.It's not that Tan Jin doesn't know that the relationship between King Xing and King An is a bit weird now, but from his standpoint, it's not appropriate to say anything at the moment. He looked back from afar on the horse and saw that the two were still outside the city, so he couldn't help feeling worried.

"Before, His Highness Wang An vomited blood." Xiao Zhong said suddenly.

Tan Jin's heart twitched: "What's going on?"

"Didn't you expect it earlier? Because of that letter from King Xing!" Xiao Zhong was annoyed, even though he knew that the other party was not to blame.

Tan Jin smiled wryly: "At that time Chang'an fell, news of His Majesty's death came, and His Highness King Xing was distraught. We couldn't persuade him, and we didn't dare to persuade him. That letter... Sigh!"

Even if King An did have his own selfish intentions, what was wrong with preserving his strength under the circumstances?Leaving aside the standpoint of courtiers, Tan Jin once discussed with Zhou Yi in private, and they all felt that what King An did was actually understandable. As a superior, a prince who holds military power, An There are many things that Wang has to consider.

Naturally, from King Xing's point of view, his elder brother died, his biological father died, the capital fell, and his family and country were almost in danger. It is inevitable that there will be resentment for King An's cruelty.

But Tan Jin and Zhou Yi didn't want the two brothers to have a rift. Now that the current situation is turbulent, someone must come out to turn the tide. This candidate is either King An or King Xing.They hope that the two can unite, no matter who is the one who wins in the end, the total score will be better.

However, people's hearts are always changeable, and they can't guarantee that after being separated for so long, King An and King Xing will still be as close and brotherly as ever.

Deep down in Tan Jin's heart, he even dared not say anything to Zhou Yi, thinking that King Xing might have sent that letter on purpose to anger King An.

But if this is the case, people's hearts are too scary.

Thinking of this, Tan Jin couldn't help but want to look back again.

But it was too far away, and no one could be seen.

"How about I go out of the city to take a look?" He was uncertain.

"Forget it," Xiao Zhong shook his head, "Your Highness is sensible, let His Highness and the others settle it themselves."

Anyway, no matter what the result is, he will definitely stand by Wang An's side, there is no doubt about it.

Outside the city, the grass and trees are swaying, and the clothes are flying.

He Zhan leaned on the sword with one hand, and looked far away from He Rong, who was standing with his horse facing the wind.

He had a lot to say, but didn't know what to say.

The distance between the two is not far away, but there seems to be thousands of mountains and rivers in the middle of this distance, which makes He Zhan unable to move forward.

He saw the wind and frost and exhaustion in the corners of He Rong's eyes, and saw the dust on his collar that had not yet been brushed off.

He wanted to ask the other party if he was doing well in the past few years, how did he know that he was here, and came here to save him?

But then he thought again, how could the third brother predict things like a god, knowing that he was here must be a coincidence.

He Zhan laughed at his self-indulgence in his heart.

His face was expressionless, as if there was solid ice that hadn't melted for a thousand years, no matter how many words he said, it couldn't melt it.

He Rong stared at it for a while, then sighed secretly, and his heart gradually turned cold.

Without saying a word, he led the horse and turned to leave.

The moment he saw him leave, He Zhan's heart almost stopped, and he shouted without thinking: "Stop!"

Of course He Rong didn't stop.

There was the sound of footsteps rushing to step on the grass and trees behind him, and the next moment, he was hugged tightly from behind.

"I told you to stop!"