The Emperor ordered Zhao Tang

Chapter 16 Macheng
The soldiers laughed and shouted, deliberately beating the drums loudly, shaking the low earthen walls of Macheng. However, no matter how powerful and majestic the Bingzhou troops were, they refused to launch an attack and just surrounded Macheng.

At the same time, people on the earth ridge kept shouting towards the earth wall: "Listen, Qi people, come out and submit to General Bin as soon as possible. As long as you are a military school with a skill, General Bin will give you an important position. If you insist on not changing your ways and break into Macheng, you will all die..."

As soon as one group says they are tired, another group comes to take over.

They shouted like this for several days, but the soldiers besieging the city showed no sign of attacking.

However, the insistence of the Bingzhou shogunate was meaningful. At the beginning, only one or two people secretly climbed over the wall in the middle of the night to surrender. No one else did. The earthen wall of Macheng was low and short, but it was better than nothing. You wouldn't get hurt if you jumped down directly. Later, more and more people from the Qizhen Military Academy climbed over. By dusk today, more than 70 people had walked out of the small loess village.

The one who surrounded this military city was Wang Xingyu, the governor of Bining.

The person who was heavily wrapped up in it was Li Maozhen, the Fengxiang Jiedushi who was in a desperate situation.

"General Qi is so arrogant and determined to raise an army to rebel. I have tried to persuade him to no avail, so I had to lead my troops to Chang'an to prevent him from doing something stupid to the emperor. If General Qi had listened to me, why would it have come to this? As the prime minister, although it is my duty to wipe out the bandits, I have no choice but to fight General Qi now! If the court did not want his life, how could I have the heart to kill him given the deep friendship we have had over the years! Since you have already turned from darkness to light, don't follow General Qi's example in the future."

"I will not be soft-hearted towards those villains who refuse to come out and submit to the imperial court and continue to instigate General Qi to cause chaos!"

Wang Xingyu was wearing the purple robe bestowed upon him by the saint outside the city of Chang'an. His voice was a little hoarse, and there were a few tears of sadness on his rough face.

But those little eyes always revealed cruelty and complacency.

The officers and soldiers of Qizhen and the civil and military officials of the shogunate who had just "abandoned the dark and joined the light" expressed their admiration for Mr. Wang for his ability to suppress the chaos and stabilize the country.

To be honest, on the night of the withdrawal, Wang Xingyu was still scared to death, fearing that Li Maozhen would hate him as an ally and betray him, and would raise troops to attack. But when he learned from the captured Fengxiang fleeing soldiers that Yang Shouliang, the governor of Shannan, took the opportunity to attack and capture Li Maozhen's lair, he mobilized all his troops and deployed defenses along the borders of Qi and Bin. He wanted to strike first and imitate Li Keyong, who killed the governor of the neighboring town and stole it.

Li Maozhen was very powerful half a month ago, but he never expected that he would suffer a serious defeat at the hands of his allies.

In a panic, Li Maozhen and more than a hundred followers fled to Macheng for refuge, and were thus made into dumpling fillings by nearly 20,000 Bin troops.

But even as he was about to be beheaded, Wang Xingyu stopped his troops and just kept persuading them to surrender.

The reason for this lies in the advice of the Bining Shogunate.

Wang Xingyu originally planned to raze Tucheng to the ground in one go and kill his good brother in the smoke and dust, but his staff members were very sure of what he said.

They said that he first betrayed the court, joined Zhu Mei, and hunted down the late emperor. Then he betrayed Zhu Mei and killed his benefactor's family. This year, he betrayed the court again and rebelled. Now he suddenly betrayed his allies and killed his old friend. If this gets out, your reputation will be completely ruined. No matter the court or the vassal state, they will no longer believe you. You are the prime minister now, so you have to be more obscure about this matter. After all, you still have to survive in Guanzhong, right?

Wang Xingyu thought about it and agreed, so he asked his staff for advice on how to treat General Qi.

He was absolutely unwilling to release Li Maozhen, but he was a little hesitant. Although he didn't care about his reputation, he didn't want to be spurned by all the vassal states in the interior. Qin Zongquan was condemned by all quarters for his repeated evil deeds, and he didn't want to follow in their footsteps.

Then the staff looked at the small loess city, looking at each other.

The cunning and clever Wang Xingyu immediately found a way to deal with it.

"I asked you to surrender and sent you to Chang'an for resettlement, but you are ungrateful."

So Wang Xingyu surrounded Macheng tightly, persuaded Li Maozhen's followers to surrender, and waited for Li Maozhen to die in the earthen city. No matter if he was beheaded by his subordinates, committed suicide, or starved to death or froze to death, it was not his hand! He just wanted to persuade him to surrender.

It has only been a few days, and only one in ten people around Li Maozhen are left.

Except for a few adopted orphan soldiers and Li Congyan, "Fengxiang Jiedushi" Li Maozhen was already a widower. And the people who forced him into a desperate situation were the emperor, court officials, Shannan Jiedushi Yang Shouliang, Wang Xingyu, domineering subordinates, beastly defeated soldiers, and the adopted son whom he regarded as his own son - Li Jikan! He hated them so much that he wanted to kill them bit by bit, eat their flesh, drink their blood, and crush them into pieces.

"hiss……"

After four days and four nights of hunger, Li Maozhen felt unbearable abdominal pain and double vision in his eyes. He had to hold on to a small tree to support his fat body to prevent himself from falling to the ground and being unable to get up. In his prime, Li Maozhen could eat two pig shoulders and drink a can of honey water in one meal. Now he was half-starved and wanted to hold and chew on a small tree. Unfortunately, the tree was too small and he was too weak to chew it.

"Wow, wow, wow..." Thinking of the past days, Li Maozhen actually burst into tears.

If the emperor agreed to give him the land south of the mountain.

If Ximen Chongsui agreed to his request and killed Yang Fugong.

If the weather wasn't so cold.

If the athletes were obedient, they would not think of causing trouble after a battle.

If Yang Shouliang had not taken the opportunity to launch a sneak attack.

If his adopted son Li Jikan had not betrayed him and established himself as the heir.

If he hadn't encountered that group of fleeing soldiers, his horses would have been robbed.

……

Why did the evil God specifically target such a poor man like him and torture him?
"Marshal, it's very cold outside, please come in and sit for a while..." The one who persuaded Li Maozhen was an orphan soldier he adopted, who had been with him for almost ten years.

"Let's ask everyone to come in so we can talk together."

However, the guard kept his head down and said nothing. Although Li Maozhen was so hungry that his head was dizzy, he could see the clues. He immediately got angry and slapped the guard on the shoulder with a weak slap. He asked with a dark face: "Are you hiding something from me?"

Without waiting for a response, Li Maozhen thought about his current situation, his anger gradually subsided, he stretched out his hand to pull up the personal soldier, and said in a low voice: "Did they also betray me and join Wang Xingyu?" The personal soldier just wiped his tears and nodded.

Li Maozhen was furious: "Traitors, traitors! I should have killed these heartless and ungrateful beasts who sold out their masters for fame and fortune..."

He cursed weakly and kicked his legs to vent his anger.

This small military city had been abandoned for many years. There were a few minor officials sent by the Jingyuan Military Headquarters, but they also fled when they saw the army coming, so that there was no food to be found in this broken place. Moreover, Li Maozhen traveled north with light luggage and did not bring much dry food. Now they were suddenly trapped here. Except for drinking water from the well to keep from dying of thirst, the group ate up all the food they could find in just two days.

After three or four days, the few remaining horses were eaten, and the followers began to secretly climb over the wall in the middle of the night.

At first, Li Maozhen tried to curb the traitors. He killed anyone who tried to escape and tortured them to death. But every night, some people still escaped. Finally, several generals who had been with him since he served in Chengde left without saying goodbye. Now, only a 16-year-old personal soldier and his son Li Congyan are still with him. The other subordinates who had fought with him through thick and thin have left him one after another.

Li Maozhen's voice became smaller and smaller. He was tired of scolding and a few tears rolled down his face again.

He looked at his personal soldier who was as thin as a monkey.

"Sanlang isn't leaving yet?"

"Marshal, Sanlang will not leave..." Sanlang's voice was as low as a mosquito.

This comforted Li Maozhen to some extent, but he said sadly: "You, you should leave. I raised you, and I don't want to see you starve to death here..."

"Marshal." Sanlang looked at Li Maozhen in surprise.

"Get out. If you don't, I'll kill you and eat your meat."

"I do not go……"

"Wow...Wow..." Li Maozhen laughed intermittently, but it was different from his usual high-spirited laughter: "You are still young, stay alive, this is the only thing I can give you."

"Commander..."

"Don't you listen to me either?" Li Maozhen shouted at the loyal orphan.

"Get out of here now. You're making so much noise that it's annoying me..." After a burst of scolding, Li Maozhen actually leaned against a small tree and turned away.

The orphan stood up, paused, and walked away with his stick.

At this moment, Li Maozhen struggled to nock the arrow and shot it towards the orphan's vest.

"Boom!"

The thin figure fell to the ground.

Li Maozhen then leaned against the wall and staggered over. He kicked the orphan twice, making sure he was dead. Then he sat down against the wall and cried in a hoarse voice, "Sanlang, don't blame me. If you don't leave, I can't bear to kill you."

After saying that, Li Maozhen picked up the orphan like crazy and started eating him.

He was not desperate. He did not believe that all the soldiers in Fengxiang had betrayed him.

It is just as difficult in this world for everyone to be loyal as for everyone to be a gangster.

He waited...

Li Maozhen's mouth, face, nose and hands were covered in blood. After eating for a while, he couldn't help laughing.

He was mocking his "ally" Wang Xingyu, who was looking for him to conspire for something big half a month ago.

Dare to think and act, and don’t be afraid of being criticized?

Haha.

You don't think that wearing purple clothes makes you a real scholar, do you?
Outside the military city, Wang Xingyu had been waiting impatiently. Since the siege of Macheng, all the people around Li Maozhen had come out, but Li Maozhen just didn't die. He once thought of sending someone to climb over the wall and kill him.

But when I think about having persisted for so many days, it would not be worthwhile to give up halfway.

At the same time, there was good news coming from Yong County. Yang Shouliang and the remaining troops of Qi Town started fighting, mainly the troops deployed by Li Maozhen in the pass areas, such as the commanders of Dasan Pass, Taihe Pass, Anrong Pass, and Dazhen Pass.

Think of this.

Wang Xingyu decided to leave some troops to continue besieging Macheng and wait for Li Maozhen to die. If he was still alive after half a month, he would kill him with a sword. He did not have the patience to wait any longer. As for himself, he led the army westward and took advantage of the battle between the Shannan Army and the Qi Army to occupy the territory.

If it really doesn't work, it's also good to grab one.

Jingyuan Town is still too poor and cannot afford to support too many soldiers.

(End of this chapter)