The Emperor ordered Zhao Tang

Chapter 219 Unveiling the Curtain
"The fierce bandits claim to be in the middle of the border, and they drive the troops in fine armor. In the past, they only relied on the cavalry, but now they also teach them to attack the city. They often ambush and invite the weak to play with the soldiers. They capture the captives and ask about their affairs, but they are silent after the meat is eaten." - Fan Yong, "Record of Western Xia Affairs" in the Song Dynasty

On June 13, the second year of Qianning, a siege battle had just ended in Yeluyuan, Shanzhou.

The battle was not large-scale. Dozens of Li's cavalry tried to sneak across Shanzhou but were caught. After a brief fight, they abandoned their horses and fled into the mountains and forests.

"Your Majesty, we have arrested more than ten bandits." Meng Wenyu urged his horse to come over and report to Zhu Wen.

"Trial." Zhu Wen waved his hand.

"Whose subordinate are you? Why are you traveling east?" The first person to be asked was a barbarian who couldn't even speak Chinese, let alone the unheard-of Central Plains accent.

After listening to a few words of chatter without understanding them, Meng Wenyu stabbed them with a knife.

"He is the vanguard who killed Zhang Lian's subordinates and traveled east to collect folk songs." A Han soldier replied.

"Who is Zhang Lian?"

"I don't know. He took over temporarily."

"Whose subordinate is Zhang Lian? The general? The commander-in-chief? The chief military officer?"

"I don't know. I haven't heard of the imperial edict announcing the general."

"Do you know Zhao Fu? What's the current position of that bastard?"

"I am the assistant to the Sili Xiaowei and the chief military officer of the Tiance Army. I don't know anything else."

"Besides you, how many other roads are there to travel east to collect folk songs?"

"I don't know."

"What kind of person is that white-skinned, red-haired guy I killed?"

"I only know that he is a barbarian who came back from Liangzhou."

"Which army do you belong to and what is your rank?"

"The Imperial Guards, Sima Junsi, Jifengdu, the Fourth Commander of the Right Wing, the Deputy Commander of the Left Banner, will lead the vanguard to kill the generals and capture him alive on the Zheng-Bian Road."

"One Banner of Geometry Knights."

"One city has one thousand, two wings each have five hundred, one commander has one hundred, and two flags each have fifty."

As Meng Wenyu asked, someone quickly took notes.

"I see that you are a brave man. Are you willing to give up the dark and join the light, and come to Daliang to serve under me and be promoted to a general?"

"can."

Meng Wenyu shook his head, let his men take the man away, and continued to interrogate the next person.

"Is he telling the truth?"

"It's all fake. Our mission is not to travel east to collect folk songs."

"What is it?"

"I came to see if Zhu Wen is dead or not, hahahaha, so funny. I'm kidding, actually it's a message from Li Dasheng. Li Dasheng asked me to tell Zhu Wen to wash and skin him clean, and scald off his pig hair for the New Year's feast. You believe me, really! Poof, oh, I can't help it, wow haha..."

Crack! The head flew high, and a slap hit the ditch. Meng Wenyu asked the next one with a gloomy face: "How many people did Li the thief deploy in Tongguan?"

The killer stared at him for a long while before saying, "Like a tide, like a water, it is impossible to calculate!"

"How many people does Li the thief have?"

"There is no one in the four seas who does not belong to the Great Sage!"

Meng Wenyu patiently asked, "Where is Li the bandit now? Has he set out to fight?"

"The vast expanse of space and land, a vast expanse of land and land, is filled with the Great Sage's dojo. The Great Sage comes and goes without a trace, and is everywhere!"

"The dog is killing wood!" Meng Wenyu clasped the knife handle with both hands.

"Slow down." Seeing the man's defiant expression, he glanced at the rest of the people, and because he was sensitive to the "Great Sage" he kept calling him, Zhu Wen became violent and said, "Execute him! Judge him with the death penalty, and peel off his skin! Just peel him off."

Meng Wenyu understood and led his team to strip the remaining ten people naked and bury them in the newly dug vertical shaft pit, leaving only a bald head that was red from the pressure. Then they found iron wire, hooked the ears of the person in question, and stretched them straight on the tree stumps on both sides, one on the left and one on the right.

In this way, the ears are pulled and the person cannot shake his head violently.

"Hey, I want to see how long you guys can hold on..." Meng Wenyu sneered, grabbed the rags and stuffed them into the mouths of the eight people. Then he broke up their hair and used his claws to comb a clear middle parting line on the top of their heads.

After everything was ready, Meng Wenyu squatted in front of one of the warriors' eyes, threw out a dagger with one hand, and pressed his forehead with the other hand and rubbed it slowly: "Have you been skinned? Haha, you want to surrender? Humph——"

"Woo...Woo!" The warrior's head shook slightly.

Meng Wenyu lowered his dagger lightly, and it had already pierced into the warrior's forehead. He clamped his legs around the struggling head, and as the dagger tip slowly moved forward along the middle parting line, blood immediately splattered, soaking his hair, as if he had just taken it out of a bucket.

"Ah..." The others watched in horror as bloody red flesh was pulled out of its skin. In the past thirty years, the only person who could calmly withstand such torture was Sun Kui, who was sawed in half.

"Dead dog slave!" Meng Wenyu kicked the skinned warrior and aimed the blade covered with slime at the next man's midsection. He killed four people in a row before digging out the remaining six who were frightened and re-interrogated them.

The onlookers, including the Bian army, were talking, laughing, and spitting at the several Li army soldiers whose skin and flesh were torn apart, and they smashed them into a powder on the ground.

"String the heads into a gourd and put it on a pole in the middle of the road, so that the Li family dogs know how powerful they are. Anyone who goes east will die." Zhu Wen, who was watching from the sidelines, gave the order. Skinning was just the most boring game for him. When he was washing the cities of Guangzhou and Chang'an, he had tried everything from burning, gouging out hearts, dog executions, animal cage fights, killing contests, dissecting babies, pulling out tongues, and crushing bones...

"Yes, sir." The military academy student who was called crossed his hands and left.

"Have you finished asking questions?" Zhu Wen looked at Meng Wenyu.

"Almost. The thief Li is recruiting men and women from the army, and some of the troops have been rewarded. They will probably leave the pass at the end of the month. This is a rumor in the army, and it may not be accurate. In addition, the Uighur general Mengmengzi led 7,000 infantry and cavalry to reinforce Hezhong, probably to guard against the Shatuo. The Dengzhou army was recalled to Guanzhong. What they saw on the street showed that Li Cunxiao now has no soldiers available except for the small fry. In addition, the thief Li may send a detachment to resist Yangchuan, along the Luoshui River to Fuchang County in the southeast of Shanzhou, which is the area of Luqiaoyi where Shi Siming was killed..."

Meng Wenyu asked dozens of questions and summarized them all to Zhu Wen. He was only responsible for the interrogation, and it was Zhu Wen's job to distinguish right from wrong and true from false.

Zhu Wen stared at a certain spot on the ground with his eyes unfocused for a long time, then asked, "Which way did Li the thief take?"

"The answer is the ancient Xiaohan Road, which is the so-called two capital roads from Chang'an to Luoyang."

Zhu Wen said nothing.

There is actually more than one way out of the pass. The section of the Xiaohan Road from Tongguan to Shanzhou passes through mountains, hills, canyons, and river plains, and the terrain is not favorable for the attacking side. The army is connected to each other for more than ten miles, and it is difficult to display the enemy on the way. It is easy to have a farce where the front army has finished fighting and lost the battle and is still eating. Secondly, there are many small roads, and the risk of ambush is too high.

Given Li's cautiousness, he most likely would not take the Qiaohan Road.

There is no way, the gap in hard power. Zhu Wen's health bar is really thick. He lost Tongguan once, Pubanjin twice, Juyangchuan three times, Jishuiyuan four times, and Jincheng five times. In the middle, he was killed by the dismounted bandits and went wild under the city of Bianzhou. Xu, Yun, and Cai rebelled. There was also pressure from the princes outside. If it were any other town, the Jiedushi would have been hanged on the gate, but he could still maintain the situation. On the other hand, Li the bandit, who always won battles and had an unparalleled reputation, still did not dare to lose even once.

He is also tortured now.

Let's talk about Li Keyong. The delay in sending troops was obviously to negotiate terms with him. The court of Taochao paid "Xin and Dai Surveillance Envoys" as a deposit in advance, promising "to go to Hedong after Chang'an is recovered". This time, the deposit was given to Liu Rengong, the Marshal of Youzhou in Hedong, the Grand Protector, the Three Dukes, who was recommended by him, as the Jiedushi of Youzhou, but the final content of the contract, "what to give for defeating Zhu Wen", had not been negotiated.

Last time, he exchanged the position of the commander of Hedong for his life-and-death battle. What about this time? Since there is no territory or official position to exchange, considering that they are the father-in-law and son-in-law, the only thing that can be exchanged is the position of the queen or the title of a prince. You have to give one of the two choices.

In other words, the relationship between the two has changed from banding together to fight against Zhu Wen to how to share the benefits after Zhu Wen is killed. If you don't share, then the other party will just watch the tiger fight in Hedong and be the oriole. Li Keyong is reckless, not stupid. Although he often acts as a pawn, he can't always be the scapegoat for you to get something for nothing. The three major factions of Jinyang, Daibei, and Shatuo are not puppets.

So he is really suffering now.

If you give it to the queen, there will be a lot of chaos inside, and the interests of all parties cannot be balanced. If you give it to the princes, they will also be annoyed.

Therefore, if he could not reach an agreement with Li Keyong and Li Keyong did not take action, it would be almost impossible for him to choose a high-return and high-risk route like the Qiaohan Road with his men - if he won, he would march to Luoyang, and if he lost, he would go back to serve as the governor of Sanfu.

The second way is to go out of Lantian and take the Hongnongjian in Guozhou. The old road that Emperor Xian took to Luoyang has the advantage of being relatively flat and simple in terrain. No one should plot against anyone else. I will just pull you out and do it. If the situation is not right, you go back to Shanzhou and I go back to Tong. That's it.

Finally, they took the Yishui River Valley, and the two sides fought a tug-of-war in the vast Yiluo Basin.

Zhu Wen hoped that he would go to Yishui River Valley, so that he would have the strategic initiative. Whether he confronted Yishui River Valley to annihilate Li's main force or evaded the enemy and attacked Tong and Pu to attack Chang'an, he would have more room for maneuver. As for Li who was a little far from home, there was a possibility that his home would be stolen and his food supply would be cut off.

What will Li Zei do?

Zhu Wen collected his thoughts and glanced at the captives who were completely invisible: "Kill them all."

"Here!"

"I don't mean--Pfft!"

Can you believe my words? Zhu Wen squinted his eyes and glanced at me, then rushed out on his horse: "Retreat, scout Taolin Pass."

*****
It was a dark and windy night. On the vast Hongnongjian River plain, the sound of horse hooves suddenly pierced the night wind and came from afar.

Zhu Youlun, the southern envoy known for his keen hearing, strong night vision, and vigilant nature, instantly pulled up the reins and growled to the left and right, "Slow down, move to both wings, and keep your bodies about ten feet apart."

"Hiroludi..." As the Bian army dispersed, the opposite side roared loudly and slowed down their pace.

"We have patrolled in this area in 17 groups and have not encountered any Tang troops during the day. They must be our own people." A military school student looked around and whispered.

Da da……

The two sides were getting closer and closer, and the sound of their horses' hooves began to circle in place.

"Huh...!" The wind suddenly passed by, and amid the howling of the forests on both sides, a strong smell of fox odor rushed towards the side of the Bian army facing the wind. Zhu Youlun's nose twitched twice, and he immediately fell on his back. In a flash, he only had time to shout "Tartar--" accompanied by the strange and exotic tunes of Tatar and Turkic languages, and a rain of arrows came over and flew directly over his head.

"There are Hu dogs!" At the first encounter, more than ten Bian cavalrymen who were caught off guard fell off their horses, cursing and screaming.

"%^￥%=&*!" The roars and shouts in Turkic and Tatar languages were deafening.

The wind was rising and the clouds were surging. The dark green moonlight once again cast its silver glow, illuminating a group of knights with dreadlocks and bald heads riding on huge horses with dense manes that were as tall as hills.

The leaders of the Bian army shouted one after another: "Break through the enemy's formation! Break through the enemy's formation!"

"Damn!" Zhu Youlun, who was the first to step forward and resist, faced someone.

The opponent's lance stabbed out from the darkness like lightning.

Zhu Youlun's eyes were bloodshot, and his ears kept shrinking slightly inward. When the scarlet spear tip reached half a foot from his neck, he accurately grabbed the spear shaft, then pulled out a horizontal sword from the horse's belly with his left hand, and slashed with the spear seven times in a row: "Kakakakakaka!"

The opponent pulled back.

Zhu Youlun was nearly pulled off the horse. He clamped his thighs against the horse's back, gritted his teeth, and leaned back several times before he managed to keep his balance.

Without any warning, the opponent suddenly let go!

"Crack!" Zhu Youlun lost his balance and fell off the horse. He stabbed the ground with a knife and found a fulcrum to push himself up. His right hand knuckles bulged as he held the saddle tightly. He twisted his body several times before adjusting himself and sitting back on the horse.

At this moment, the opponent's long-handled axe had passed by and, with an oblique hook, hit the jaw of Zhu Youlun's mount!
"Yu..." The rider stood up, his neck turning red.

"Damn the Tartars!" Zhu Youlun felt a chill on his back. He immediately jumped off his horse, holding the knife in both hands, and retreated without looking back, staring into the darkness in a daze.

Da da……

Da da da!
In the darkness, a flash of light appeared and an axe slashed down towards Zhu Youlun's head!

“Bang bang...!” Sparks flew, Zhu Youlun swung his sword wildly, and blocked with a grimace.

"Eh, eh--" The opponent did not give Zhu Youlun any chance to breathe. He turned the long-handled axe around and held it in his palm, hitting Zhu Youlun on the head.

His helmet was knocked off and Zhu Youlun felt dizzy.

"Whoosh!" Another axe slashed at the arm out of nowhere. Zhu Youlun was caught in a dilemma and quickly fell to the ground to avoid it. Then he jumped up and slashed at the opponent's horse leg with a knife.

"Xi..." The opponent pulled the reins vertically, and the horse stood up, kicked its front hooves in the air a few times, then turned around and ran away briskly.

"Oh! Oh! Huh..." Zhu Youlun was panting heavily, staring at the Tartar as he walked away, looking like a survivor.

The bright moon appeared and disappeared, and in the darkness there were screams, wails, curses, and sounds of breaking through the air. Zhu Youlun carefully observed quickly, but found that less than half of his subordinates were still sitting on their horses, and dozens of them abandoned their mounts and lined up on the spot...

"Swish, swish, swish...!" The sound of locust-like arrows sounded again.

The Bian army relied on their iron armor to fight back desperately.

The person who was shot had his mouth covered by his comrades to prevent him from screaming.

After three waves.

"Da, da..." The sound of horse hooves began to circle again, lingering, wandering, and observing at a certain distance from them.

It seemed like a long time, yet so short.

“$￥@!%（+&…：~/?” Perhaps he couldn’t tell the truth from the false, and after a conversation in barbarian language, the other party turned his horse and disappeared into the night.

"Oh my god..."

"Hmm... Heh, heh... Ha... Heh..."

In the silence of the huffing and patting of the chest, Zhu Youlun, with his heart pounding, supported his thighs with both hands, bent over and panted. This fight was so dangerous that he could be said to have escaped from the gates of hell. It was something he had never experienced in his many years of military service. If it weren't for the darkness of the night and the other party's caution, he would have died!

I almost got defeated by an unknown Tartar!
Before Zhu Youlun could recover from the shock, the deputy general who had just counted the casualties came running over and said dejectedly, "In the previous battle, ninety-seven people were killed, and there were more than a hundred people with minor or serious injuries. We only found twelve bodies of Hu Gou..."

Zhu Youlun closed his eyes, looked up to the sky and sighed in silence. Judging from the sound of horse hooves and the fighting, the enemy's number of people is not more than his side... If Li's scouts and patrols are all at this level, they are suppressed in the wild and cannot move. There is no need to fight, just defend the city.

Taking a deep breath and suppressing the trembling on his scalp, Zhu Youlun picked up a helmet and put it on, and shouted to the lifeless remnants of the army: "Form a line, move, now!"

"Take the narrow forest path with embankments! Don't talk!" he turned back and reminded.

Hundreds of cavalrymen moving together are no longer scouts, but one of Li's vanguard troops. What can this reflect? There must be more than one such small infiltration force in the Hongnongjian area; the signs of a large-scale crossing of Li's army have already appeared.

The supreme Holy Spirit Emperor of Guanzhong is going to lead thousands of troops to the east.

A catastrophe begins.

(End of this chapter)