Chapter 145 Yaksha

Wang De was from Shuyangzhai, Tongyuan Army (now in Gansu), a typical member of the Western Army.

Before the Jingkang Incident, he served under Yao Gu, a member of the Yao clan, a general of the Western Army. When the Jin army invaded for the first time, the Eastern Army, led by the second crown prince Wuliebu, swept across Hebei and entered Weizhou via Xiangzhou, while the Western Army, led by Nianhan, locked up Taiyuan while continuing to move south, but met with Wuliebu at Weizhou on the bank of the Yellow River via Longdefu (now Shangdang) to discuss crossing the river together.

The main forces of the Jin army gathered in the areas of Longde Prefecture, Xiangzhou, and Weizhou. Basically, most of the main forces of the Jin army were gathered. The elite field troops such as Meng'an and Mouke alone were probably nearly 100,000.

Yao Gu was stationed in Zezhou (now Gaoping and Jincheng) southwest of Longde Prefecture (now Shangdang and Changzhi) and west of Weizhou. Faced with the main force of the Jin army, he sent Wang De, the most capable officer in the army, to investigate.

Wang De successfully killed a Jin army general and returned calmly.

Yao Gu was overjoyed and asked him if he could go again.

So when Wang De received the order for the second time, he only led 16 riders and then crossed the front line where the main force of the Jin army gathered, and went straight into the capital of Longde Prefecture (later Changzhi), captured alive Yao Taishi, the Khitan Haner defender appointed by the Jin army, and then brought him back.

Later, the first siege of Jingkang ended, the Jin army retreated, and Wang De sent Master Yao to Dongjing City. Yuansheng, also known as Emperor Qinzong of Song, asked him how he was captured?

Master Yao was helpless and could only say that when he was captured, he only saw a murderous yaksha.

From then on, Wang De was nicknamed Wang Yasha and became famous in both countries.

Such a person is certainly not as good as Han Shizhong and Yue Fei, but he is only inferior to Han and Yue. If he is given a suitable opportunity, he may become famous in the two countries again.

In fact, although Han Shizhong looked down on Wang De and said that he was not a talented general... but think about it carefully, Han Shizhong, who had issued the "First in the World" declaration, should essentially look down on everyone. He only said that Wang De was not a talented general, which meant that he acknowledged that Wang De was a rare military talent.

In a sense, this is a kind of certification.

On the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Wang De led twenty knights and two hundred long-axe-bearing soldiers and was the first to leave the city and head east. Before they reached Zhang Yu's camp, they aroused Zhang Yu's vigilance. The latter did not dare to be negligent. On the one hand, he ordered each camp to be on guard, and on the other hand, he hurriedly sent a letter to Wanyan Wushu in the north. Finally, he and his deputy general Li Dayin sent all two thousand armored soldiers out of the camp for defense... They did not recognize Wang De, and Wang De did not raise a flag. He just felt that the other side's soldiers were well-armored and did not seem like ordinary people.

But after watching for a while, they found that the two hundred soldiers were just patrolling in front of the camp. They had no reinforcements, no flags to identify themselves, and no posture or preparation for attack. After a while, under the leadership of the burly general, the two hundred and twenty-one people simply sat on the ground in front of the formation... Such a situation, of course, aroused suspicion.

"What does this mean?" Zhang Yu looked at it for a long time but couldn't understand it at a distance of three hundred steps, so he turned to look at Li Dayin.

However, how could Li Dayin, a carpenter and a so-called professional, know what this meant? He looked at it for a long time and just shook his head without saying anything.

"Do you know what this means?" Zhang Yu turned around and asked the personal guards who followed him. "Whoever tells me something useful will get two wives as a reward!"

Of course it would be good to have two women, but they also have to be alive to be placed in the tent. Who knows what is useful? Will they be chopped off if they say something is useless?

The soldiers looked at each other, but no one spoke.

The snow had not melted completely, and the wind had been howling in the past few days. The ice, snow and dirt on the ground were frozen hard. The horse under Zhang Yu's crotch seemed quite impatient, and its hooves kept hitting the ground, making a hard sound, which also showed Zhang Yu's own impatience.

Sure enough, after a moment, Zhang Yu casually pointed to someone behind him and said, "You say!"

"I... I don't know!" The man looked up blankly. The cold weather made his nose run.

Zhang Yu was furious. He smiled at first, then his face turned cold and he raised his hand directly: "Chop it off!"

Li Dayin, who was standing by, wanted to persuade them instinctively, but he sighed in his heart and tried to shrink back. Everyone was silent and could only watch the soldier being stripped of his armor and clothes in public while he begged for mercy, and then the sacrificial flag was chopped down with a knife.

"You!" Zhang Yufu pointed at another person. "I remember you were a scholar?"

"Yes, Dujian." The person who was asked this time happened to be Zhou Bin, who had survived the previous two-choice mode. At this moment, he was carrying a flag and shivering in the cold wind. When he was called, he shuddered and nodded quickly.

"Tell me!" Zhang Yu said bluntly. "What do you think this group of government troops is going to do?"

"It's to lure the enemy!" Zhou Bin almost blurted out. He didn't say this to fool the other party, but he really thought so from the beginning.

In fact, Zhang Yu was also startled when he heard this, but he immediately pointed his whip at the man and said sternly: "Speak clearly!"

"Captain, please look!" Zhou Bin gritted his teeth and said. "The government troops are neatly lined up. It's clear at a glance that there are only more than 200 people! How can 200 people dare to attack a camp of more than 10,000 people? They are clearly trying to lure us over... After we get over, they will surely be defeated and retreat, and we will be in chaos. Once we start fighting, we will be unable to control ourselves and will definitely follow us... And if there are many people who follow us, the city will not be stingy with stone bullets and will fire those powerful stone cannons to attack us; if there are few people, I'm afraid there will be ambushes waiting behind the sheep and horse wall, and they will rush over and eat us in front of the city."

"That makes sense!" Li Dayin was the first to agree, but he immediately started to gesture and explain. "Brother, look... our camp is a full 800 steps away from Nanyang City. The government army's artillery carts are powerful. They can fire from the city and reach more than 300 steps out of the city. The good crossbows on our camp wall are effective at a distance of about 200 steps. The white space between the two armies is only 300 steps wide... If we really fight over there, I'm afraid we'll be lured over there because we're greedy for merit or the good armor on these soldiers."

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