Chapter 340 Arriving at Wu County
But it was too late when he realized that his judgment was wrong.
If he had understood this earlier, perhaps he could have let his subordinates escape from the other side of the hill and temporarily give up the encirclement and suppression of "Sun Ce" and his followers.
But at this moment they were all in the fierce battle in the valley. Apart from defeating the opponent completely, there was no other way for him to escape from the predicament he had fallen into after being deceived!
The burning area of the village was only a few feet away from them, but it was obviously not a trap that could entrap his opponent.
And in this fight, Zu Lang was unable to see any advantage in any of the battles.
An absolutely elite cavalry!
There is also a kind of tragic and heroic spirit for unknown reasons!
Now even this fake Sun Ce is by no means the weak link, but rather the sharpest knife.
In this moment of close combat, the spear, which was too close to him, thanks to its owner's focused attention, swept away the darts thrown by his subordinates and hit his blade again.
The attack failed to hit the target, but was intercepted by Zu Lang with his combat instinct.
But almost the next moment after the clanging sound was heard, she pulled out the back half of the two-piece three-barreled rifle and let the short-handled gun shoot out.
The sharp spear pierced through the head of the cavalryman in the rear, and was pulled out by another hand.
"My Lord! You can't steal someone's head like this. Go on!"
While Zu Langyou was feeling depressed after being knocked back by the spear, the fatal half of the spear had returned to her hand, and even formed a spear flower in her hand, and swept across another person's throat while she was turning her horse's head.
Zu Lang's face was immediately splashed with blood.
Almost at the same time, the burly man who condemned Qiao Yan for stealing the head took the halberd in his hand and chopped another Shanyue cavalryman off his horse.
This series of actions could not be described as smooth and flowing, and Zu Lang had no time to ponder whether the word "Lord" was referring to the Grand Marshal Qiao Yan himself, because the two broken spears had merged into one again as the two horses passed each other, and turned around without any delay, and was a stab straight to the back.
Zu Lang didn't dare to delay.
He had clearly realized from the brief confrontation that he was no match for Qiao Yan. Even the troops under his command were no match for the cavalry led by Qiao Yan!
The Shanyue people's habit of hiding in the mountains when faced with encirclement and suppression prevailed at this moment.
What he was thinking about at the moment was definitely not to continue fighting with Qiao Yan until he was killed by the other party, but to escape first and hide in the Yishan Mountain further west, in the hope of retaking Jing County one day.
In theory, the current melee among the cavalry was a good opportunity for him to escape through the gaps in the crowd.
But as soon as he made his choice, the spear followed him like a shadow.
Zhu Tan hasn't had the opportunity to demonstrate his prowess on the front battlefield for many years. Even the last surprise attack on Chengdu only used his ability on the road. So when he finally had the chance to show his prowess, he was much more excited than usual.
How could Zu Lang's Yangzhou mountain horse possibly outrun Zhu Tan's Bingzhou famous horse?
The horse is fast, and the gun is fast too!
Zu Lang hurriedly fell on the horse's back, allowing the spear to pass over his head. It did not pierce him through, but the other end of the spear stabbed Zu Lang's confidant who was trying to help him off the horse at the moment the spear was put back.
But his luck and the fact that his subordinates died for him ended there.
It seemed that the fatal strike with the spear did not delay Qiao Yan much at all. The chaos of the running horses around her did not affect her determination to kill the target at all. So at the moment when Zu Lang stood up and tried to turn around to avoid him, the tip of the spear, which was illuminated red by the firelight, had reached him in an incredible way.
This time, his sword didn't have time to block the spear. Under Qiao Yan's extremely fierce attack, he had no way to use offense instead of defense.
The next moment, the spear pierced through his thin armor, penetrated his waist and abdomen, and then knocked him off his horse with an extremely ruthless force.
Zu Lang's face turned pale in an instant, almost as pale as Qiao Yan's when he pretended to be seriously ill.
If she fell off her horse in such a cavalry encounter, she would never be able to survive even if she didn't cut off his head with a single shot.
The instinct for survival made him grab the spear that he had just pulled out from his waist. As the Zhutan horse ridden by Qiao Yan galloped, he was dragged for a distance and barely avoided the trampling of the horse's hooves.
But before his final struggle could last long, he was thrown out by the force of the spear and hit the stone pillar behind him.
Intense pain and a dizzy feeling came over him in an instant, almost causing him to faint on the spot.
But then the sounds of swords and spears came into his ears again, along with the noise of the wooden house collapsing in the fire, making him realize that he was still alive.
A cold temperature touched his forehead. He struggled hard to see the scene clearly, and saw that the spear in the female general's hand was right in front of him.
The opponent was riding on a horse and didn't pay the slightest attention to the melee behind him.
But for some reason, Zu Lang had a strange intuition. Although she was staring at her prey closely, no movement around her could escape her perception.
This condescending attitude was even more confident than the one she had shown when she was watching from the sidelines just now.
It also forced Zu Lang to admit a fact.
He lost, and lost badly.
In a situation where I was originally in an advantageous position, he actually made the hunter and the prey switch places!
But what was the use of lamenting his wrong decision at this moment, because at this moment he heard a burst of shouting and killing coming from the high hill. It was from behind the hill that more Yangzhou troops climbed up and launched a siege on the last group of people he brought with him.
That was his last backup team.
Apart from the defenders of the villages scattered in Yishan, these were the most powerful group of young men under his command. However, in this leaderless battle, they had no room for resistance at all.
He no longer needed to ask why the other party was so sure that he would use such an entrapment to take him down. In short, the facts were now before him.
He just forced himself to ask, "Why don't you kill me?"
She only needed to push the spear in her hand forward a little more and his head would be cleaved open.
By then, if she raises her arms and shouts "Zulang is dead", this Shanyue force will completely lose the courage to fight her, making it easier for her to clean up.
Why not?
However, this weapon that could take someone's life at any time was always hovering there, so much so that in the still-changing battle situation around it, it seemed as if the action was temporarily frozen here.
The bleeding from the wound made Zu Lang's breath even weaker, but fortunately it did not affect his hearing.
He also clearly heard Qiao Yan reply: I need an answer from you. ”
One, the answer to taking action against the Wujun family!
She was not the only one who fanned the flames of Sun Ce's death. Even Qiao Lan and Qiao Ting on her side only rescued Huang Zu's son Huang She from outside the city of Nanchang.
The real culprit who pushed Huang She and Zu Lang to form an alliance and caused Sun Ce to die in the campaign to encircle and suppress the Shanyue was the Wujun family!
While Sun Ce was here, these people could still maintain the arrogant attitude of the Yangzhou family and try to remove their immediate superiors and restore them to their original status.
When Yangzhou is about to be taken over by her, these people can forget about having such an opportunity!
Therefore, she had to take advantage of Sun Ce's death to make use of the situation, and after personally conquering Zu Lang, she would go straight to the Wujun family and never leave herself with any more trouble.
There was something behind her words, and Zu Lang got a clue. He covered his wound and took a breath, "But why should I answer your question?"
"Because your answer determines my attitude towards Shanyue in the future."
These words were almost drowned out by the sound of the battle that was coming to an end around them, but every word seemed to explode in his mind.
In front of him, figures were falling down one after another and never stood up again. These people had originally joined the encirclement with the idea of getting drunk with him.
After Yan Baihu's death, except for a few of his generals in the northern part of Wujun who fled or were recruited by other forces, the rest were tragically killed in the encirclement and suppression by Sun Ce's troops.
Yan Baihu is like this, and Zu Lang is certainly no exception.
The destruction of his elite troops meant that the other men hiding in Mount Yi would also suffer a devastating disaster.
But in Qiao Yan's words, he seemed to hear another way.
A way to survive.
If the word "Lord" he just heard was not wrong, and the person who pretended to be Sun Ce in front of him was really Qiao Yan, then the other Shanyue people would really have a chance to survive.
Although she led an expedition to the north against the Xianbei and ordered her subordinates to kill the then Xianbei Chanyu, it is rumored that the current Xianbei Chanyu Budugen has a good relationship with her.
Although she once massacred the Zhongqiang tribe in Gaoping City in Liangzhou in the northwest, she also turned the Huangzhong Valley and Jincheng County into a place to accommodate the Qiang people, and even let a Qiang woman sit on the position of the General of the Guards of the Qiang Barbarians.
Especially the appearance of the latter, when the news reached Yangzhou, many of the Shanyue people were deeply envious.
If Zu Lang was doomed to die, but was able to give a new life to other living people, then why couldn't he say a few more words when he could have died from blood loss?
He looked up at Qiao Yan.
Although the disguise on the other person's face still conceals part of his true appearance, the demeanor conveyed by his undisguised eyes is the kind that makes people submit to him.
She didn't have to lie to him.
He opened his mouth slowly and asked, "Are you Grand Sima Qiao Yeshu?"
"Is there anyone else in the world who would appear here at this time?"
Qiao Yan's rhetorical question made Zu Lang couldn't help but laugh twice, and there was even a hint of arrogance in his laughter.
"To have the Grand Marshal come and take my Zulang's life personally... I have no regrets in this life."
"If you want to know anything, just ask."
Zhu Huan, who was in Wu County, suddenly felt a tightness in his heart.
As a descendant of the four surnames of Wu County, he, a young man who was about to enter officialdom, knew a lot about his fathers' plot against Sun Ce and their secret alliance with Zu Lang. However, although they advised not to completely break off relations with Sun Ce and at least maintain some appearances, they could not get their elders to listen.
In their view, a reckless man is a reckless man. If they make any concessions, he will only become more aggressive and think that killing noble families and harming famous scholars and literati are all acceptable things for him as the governor of Yangzhou.
So, instead of letting Sun Ce, after completely conquering Yangzhou and resolving the Shanyue rebellion, take down the Wujun family as a target in order to further concentrate power in Yangzhou, it would be better for them to be the bad guy and get rid of Sun Ce first!
"It's too dangerous... If Sun Ce succeeds in annihilating the Shanyue, and he receives the letters and supplies we promised to help him with from Zu Lang, especially if he finds those retainers of Governor Xu, wouldn't that bring us big trouble?"
Zhu Huan usually likes to make friends with knights-errant. He is a well-known generous man in Wu County. It can be said that he is also quite courageous.
But he had a hunch that if they continued to treat Sun Ce with this attitude, they would sooner or later get into big trouble.
After all, in today's world, those who have soldiers in their hands are the ones who have the final say.
No matter how poor Sun Ce's background was, as long as he had these veteran generals and soldiers under his command and had the title of Governor of Yangzhou, who was the leader and who was the follower was an indisputable matter.
"Why worry so much? As long as Sun Ce dies, Yangzhou will return to its original fragmented state. Even if the court sends a new governor to Yangzhou, he will still have to rely on our help to regain his foothold in Yangzhou. It would be even better if Zhou Gongjin took over. Although the Lujiang Zhou family and our four Wujun families are not from the same place, they should be considered as of the same blood..."
Zhu Huan turned around and saw his cousin, who was no more than two years younger than him, replying nonchalantly, and it was clear that he had no guard at all in this matter.
"If we let Sun Zhongmou replace his brother to help keep the army together, then we won't have to worry. What use is a thirteen-year-old kid? Isn't he going to be controlled by us?"
Zhu Huan couldn't help but ask, "Are you so sure that Sun Bofu is dead?"
"Come on, it's possible to hide the situation in Danyang County from others, but if they can hide it from us, they are really treating us as fools. So many famous doctors have been summoned and all of them are detained. Even Madam Wu has been invited away. If the poison had not penetrated deeply into the lungs, this situation would never have happened."
"If it's not these few days, it will be at most ten days or half a month. We have been letting Sun Ce run wild for three or four years, so waiting a few more days is not a problem."
Zhu Huan looked at his cousin's arrogant expression and felt that the ominous premonition he had just had seemed to be getting stronger and stronger.
But before he could open his mouth, someone suddenly pushed the door open and made a loud noise. The two of them looked closely and realized that it was Gu Yong, the then Qu'a County magistrate.
"Yuan Tan, what happened?" Zhu Huan quickly stood up from his seat.
Although Gu Yong was one of the four surnames of Wu County, he was never a person who only focused on one county or one state.
In his early years, he lived in the north with his great-grandfather and became a disciple of Cai Yong, learning how to play the piano and calligraphy. The character "Yong" in Gu Yong's name was given by Cai Yong. He then returned to Yangzhou and took up a county official position.
Very different from his teacher's low emotional intelligence in political affairs, Gu Yong has made achievements in governance in Hefei, Lou County and today's Qu'a. Given his family background, if Sun Ce wants to entrust important tasks to the children of the four surnames in the future, Gu Yong will definitely be among them.
Zhu Huan had always respected him and knew that he had a calm temperament and would never lose his composure for no reason.
Seeing his performance at this moment, I felt that something big might have happened.
"Take a few people with me. I received news that the ship from Tongguan has moved. Let's quickly check where it will stop. If the ship is not heading to Hailing, but to Wujun..." Gu Yong took a deep breath, "We are in big trouble."
Zhu Huan put on his coat and followed Gu Yong out, "Why don't you talk to your elders at home?"
"If that is indeed the place where the navy of Jingzhou or Yizhou is stationed in Hailing to support the battle in Xuzhou, we will be in trouble if we overreact." Gu Yong replied hurriedly, "You let those rangers wait and see along the river, and report to us immediately if they land."
"Okay! I'll arrange it right away."
From Tongguan where the fleet was stationed, they sailed down the Yangtze River to Hailing, passing through Niuzhu, Liyang, Jiangcheng, Dantu and other places. If your target is Xuzhou Hailing, you don't need to stay in these places and can reach your destination directly.
But when thinking about Sun Ce's uncertain life or death at the moment, no one would think that the migration of this fleet was a normal move.
But what surprised the people sent out by Zhu Huan was that this fleet did not stop at the river ports of the above-mentioned cities, nor did it go to Hailing, but went straight east to the sea.
Gu Yong and Zhu Huan, who were heading north from Qu'a to Dantu, looked at each other, both showing a hint of confusion in their eyes.
"Could it be that I guessed wrong? This fleet is going to land directly in the north of Xuzhou to support the fighting on the Huaihe River front?" Gu Yong murmured.
But what he never expected was that although the fleet did not stop at the ports along the river, it sailed along the coast and headed straight for Lou County on the coast.
With the support of the insiders in Wu County, the more than 10,000 troops on the ship entered the city overnight and surrounded the ancestral homes of the four surnames in Wu County without giving anyone any chance to react.
As long as the fleet landed in Dantu, Jiangcheng and other places, it would take one or two days to reach Wuxian by land. Just as Gu Yong asked Zhu Huan to pay attention to, there was still room for them to buffer.
When the encirclement of the city after abandoning the boat and landing happened unexpectedly, the elders of the four surnames of Wu County who were present were snatched out of their beds one by one.
The brightly lit provincial capital, accompanied by the well-armored guards, made these noble family members who were accustomed to being treated politely by others almost think that they were still sleepy, otherwise why would they have such an illusion.
But the sharp swords and weapons around them and the pain they felt at being suppressed showed that this was not a dream.
What made them even more certain that they were not in a dream was that they saw the person sitting at the top.
If this was their dream, the person surrounded by Huang Gai, Cheng Pu and others should be Sun Ce, not a woman wearing a black robe, with a gold seal and purple ribbon!
The mark of her status as a marquis made it easy for them to guess her identity even though they had never met her before.
Grand Marshal Qiao Yan!
"Liu Jingsheng's boat is pretty solid, but I won't praise him too much right now. Let's talk about what happened between us."
Qiao Yan looked at the dozens of people who were brought in first and asked slowly, "Do you know Zu Lang?"
"He said that he has a payment that you need to pay."
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