Seeing this, Li Shifu no longer hesitated, but dismounted immediately without changing armor. He directly abandoned his long weapon and bow and arrows, and just carried two swords on his back, then jumped from the wooden board on the water gate, intending to fight personally and win great merit.
It was not until this time that Li Shifu, who had just entered the city, discovered something strange: "Where is the guide?"
"This person changed his mind underwater!" The leader Zhang Qi was Li Shifu's childhood friend and the leader of the personal guards left to him by his father Li Yongqi. He certainly had no scruples when speaking. "He tried to push open the stone that was holding up the water gate, but I stabbed him with a knife underwater!"
Li Shifu was stunned for a moment, and was in a trance. But after a while, he came to his senses and found himself together with Zhang Qi, each holding two swords, two people with four swords, cooperating well, just like a tiger and a hungry wolf, killing continuously, and in a moment, they killed and dispersed the Xixia defenders who came to block them.
Then, seeing that Zhang Xian's troops had already poured in, the two men ignored them and, relying on their experience of having been to Xingqing Prefecture together and being familiar with the geography, they led their troops directly towards the old palace in the city.
By this point, the people on and off the city had already been completely alarmed by this place. Without Yue Fei's order, Zhang Xian had already sent all his troops to follow and break in from here. The Xixia defenders on the top of the city were also broken through a little bit, and then the whole side was broken, and then they gradually lost control and finally scattered.
After yesterday's battle, even ordinary soldiers could guess from experience that the city would fall. But no one expected that the city would fall so easily. No one expected that Li Shifu, who was ordered to intercept and investigate outside, would make such a great achievement.
However, as the Song army marched into the city in large numbers and cleared the city, Li Shifu's originally amazing military achievements were inevitably dimmed.
There are two reasons:
First, when the Song army entered the city in large numbers, they realized that there were only two thousand armored defenders in the city, who were the local armored cavalry and palace guards of Xingqing Prefecture who had escaped back yesterday. The rest were tribal troops who had rushed in from other places in the past two days. There were only more than a thousand armored soldiers on the top of the city.
In other words, the city defenses of Xingqing Prefecture were made of paper and would be easily broken. They were even worse than imagined.
Secondly, Li Shifu raided the city, but was caught in hand-to-hand street fighting inside and outside the old palace. He failed to capture Li Ganshun and his son until the rest of the troops quickly surrounded the place.
Up to this point, all the troops in the army were like crazy, sending out their best troops to search repeatedly inside and outside the small Xixia Old Palace, and the scope was getting larger and larger. Gradually, they were in a killing spree, and looting, killing, and even rape had already occurred.
At this point, for some unknown reason, Li Shifu simply gave up on looking for Li Ganshun and his son to accomplish this great feat, and went directly to the city gate to welcome Yue Fei's four-character banner.
A moment later, Qu Duan entered first and began to enforce military discipline, arresting soldiers who had violated the rules, and sent them to the streets... Then Yue Fei entered from behind with a large flag, without stopping for a moment, questioning people along the way, depriving looters of their rewards, and killing indiscriminately and raping them on the spot.
When he came to his senses, Qu Duan, Yue Fei and Hu Hongxiu had all arrived at the old palace. The generals also came to their senses and gathered in a pool of blood in front of the palace.
"What do you mean he can't be found?" After hearing the report, Qu Duan, who was riding on the Iron Elephant and standing at the intersection in front of the Xixia Old Palace, couldn't help but get furious. "The city was captured so quickly, where did he go? Even if it was a rat, you guys with so many men and horses could have trampled it to death."
However, the generals looked at each other in silence... and just went to look at Yue Fei.
Yue Fei frowned slightly, then turned around again and looked at a group of surrendered people. They were the people he and Qu Duan had gathered together while enforcing military discipline along the way.
One of them understood, thought for a moment, sighed, then stepped out and saluted: "Jiedu Yue... I'm sorry to say that my king and the prince went out together after receiving the King of Yue the day before yesterday, and never came back... At least I haven't seen the king in person in the past two days."
As soon as these words were spoken, Qu Duan and others, although they were on the verge of a great victory, could not help but become a little furious. Yue Fei, Hu Hongxiu, and Li Shifu, who was the first to rush into the Old Palace, were all startled for inexplicable reasons, and instinctively felt that something was wrong.
"If that's the case, it makes sense that the city's defenses are so weak, but who is the president of the city?" Yue Fei, who was also riding a horse and standing under the banner, asked seriously.
"Of course it's the Prime Minister Xue Yuanli." The man bowed again. "The so-called decree was brought out by this man from the old palace, and when the king went out the other day, it was this man who was entrusted by the king in public."
Yue Fei finally understood what was strange... If Xue Yuanli was the president of Xingqing Prefecture, why did he personally serve as an envoy before the war? If he was caught or killed, wouldn't the city be in disarray?
But soon, Yue Fei came to his senses. Although Hu Hongxiu was a little slower, he also came to his senses.
There was no other reason. It was precisely because of this that this man did this. Li Ganshun and his son were not in this city. The remnants of the defeated army in this city could be easily defeated. Compared with this city, he had to conceal Li Ganshun's whereabouts as much as possible... Therefore, he pretended to go out of the city at that time, just to make him, as the commander of the Song army outside the city, mistakenly believe that Li Ganshun was in the city.
But no one expected that the Song army would break through the defense just half a day after the war started... Of course, maybe he also thought of it, but he was just doing his best. And in a sense, this man's plan was actually successful.
"Xixia has been established for a hundred years, so there must be some explanation." Yue Fei finally narrowed his eyes slightly, then reined in his horse and drew his gun under the banner, looking around. "Where is Xue Yuanli?"
Now, the generals who came to seize the old palace looked at each other again, but were shocked to find that not only were Li Ganshun and his son not there, but even Xue Yuanli had not been snatched away by anyone.
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