When the towns gathered in Chang'an and planned Li Ye's ascension to the throne together, outside Chang'an Pass, the Qi army was defeated out of Lantian, Yueshang Luoshan, crossed Wuguan, and returned to Henan again. After the fiasco of Chang'an, the Qi army at this time claimed that there were still 150,000 people, but in fact this was just their usual bluff, in fact, all their men and horses together at this time were only more than 50,000 people, or the result of the former accomplice Zhu Asan's net opening, just these more than 50,000 people, of which less than 30,000 were real soldiers.

On a frosty and windy night, in the desolate mountains of Tongbai County on the border between Tang and Sui Prefectures, on a bare hill with only five pine trees towering between a few large stones, at the fork of the sheep intestine path, stood silently and silently a group of unarmored cavalry. They rode about 300 hundred, a burly man, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, and a beard, with a solemn expression, majestic and motionless riding on a horse, holding the reins in one hand and holding a large white flag tightly in the other.

The banner carried a tassel made of snow-white horsehair and a silver spear with a silver glittering spear, and the center of the flag was embroidered with a large "Qi" character in black satin.

In front of the banner, there stood a particularly tall horse, with a short mane and tail, the horse was snow-white, without the slightest variegation, this horse has a name called Qianli Xue, it is a horse that can travel thousands of miles a day. Now riding on this thousand-mile horse was a knight of thirty-four or five, tall, with broad shoulders, protruding cheekbones, full heaven, high nose, deep eye sockets, thick eyebrows and big eyes, those big eyes were shining brightly at this time, and they were staring forward.

He wears a phoenix-winged helmet and a set of vermilion lacquer mountain pattern armor. Outside, he was draped in a silver silk and gold cloak. He had a bow diagonally on his back. He had a horizontal knife and a cowhide hulu hanging from his waist. It was full of thirty sharp arrows. This is a vermilion lacquer painted gold quiver, this is only the royal can use vermilion lacquer and gold decoration, this quiver was once the imperial object of the Great Qi Emperor Huang Chao, Huang Chao Chang'an Daming Palace before self-immolation, this quiver was handed over to a guard, let him bring it to Shang Rang, to him to lead the rest of the Qi army to evacuate Chang'an.

It was with this quiver that Shang Rang was able to command the rest of the Qi army. led them all the way out of Chang'an, all the way to this. During this period of time, Shang Rang broke through the encirclement with this quiver, and it was full of dots, some places were worn, and some places still had knife wounds and arrow marks.

At this time, Shang Rang, who was still carrying this quiver, was waiting for something, looking intently to the south and east.

To the east, separated by some hills, about ten miles away. Some silver reflections could be faintly seen, and he knew it in his heart. That is the source of the Huai River. A little further away is the campfire of the official army, and there is the county town of Tongbai, a small county town located at the source of the Huai River, between the four prefectures of Tang, Sui, Cai and Shen.

These days, they have been advancing eastward from Chang'an, passing through Zhu Asan's territory all the way. Zhu Asan didn't plan to fight to the death with them, and he also knew that the current Qi army was already a complete outlaw, and whoever dared to block the road would have to fight with them. Zhu Asan is a cunning guy, he saw the decline of the Qi Dynasty early, and lowered the officers and soldiers early, and now that guy is already the king of Liang, but he also knows that his foundation is his soldiers and horses.

All the way here, the Qi army has been far away from the main force of the official army, the upper and lower hearts when breaking through, the sense of urgency and danger began to relax, the Qi army immediately began to be a little messy, the generals began to have their own ideas, some people want to join the official army, some people want to go to Henan, some people want to go back to Shandong, and some want to go to Jianghuai All kinds of ideas are there, people's hearts began to disperse, and the team is not easy to bring.

As the second-in-command of the Qi army, and now the de facto number one leader, Shang Rang needs to maintain the stability of this defeated army, and must not let them divide again. He knew very well that at this time of division, the only thing waiting for them was to be ruthlessly exterminated by the Tang Army in Zhuzhen and wiped out. But now the situation is really bad, all the way to escape, in order to stop the pursuit of the official army, they have not brought much gold and silver on the road, in order to slow down the pursuit of the official army.

The most lacking thing is food, just now Zhang Juyan came to report, they now only have three days of food left in the army, if they can't find food, let alone others, this defeated army will be astigmatized in a blink of an eye.

They had to strike, they had to attack a city.

Only in the city can there be food, and the countryside outside the city is already empty, scraping three feet of the ground, and there is no food for tens of thousands of people. Their most suitable target now was Tongbai City to the east, which was a small county town with few defenders.

But just now he received another bad news, Fengguo Army Jiedu envoy, Qi King Qin Shouquan has sent his general Sun Ru to lead 5,000 soldiers and horses to Tongbai in the starry night. This damn Qin Zongquan was just a defeated general under him at the beginning, and he once surrendered to their Great Qi Dynasty, but now, in the blink of an eye, he licked the old eunuch Yang Brothers' ditch and became Yang Fuguang's godson, and actually turned into the King of Qi of the Chang'an Court of the Tang Dynasty. Fuck, it's a fuck thing in this world.

After three days of food, they had no other choice. Even if Sun Ru led his troops to arrive, they would not have time to change to the second target, so they had to fight to the death.

Countless torches came from the west, walking on the winding mountain road like a fire dragon, and the Qi army was already making the most preparations. Although there are 5,000 more Sun Ru in Tongbai City, there are only 1,000 defenders and 6,000 people in the city. Over the years, he has never seen any kind of wind and waves, he has commanded hundreds of thousands of battles, and there are only a few thousand people crawling over the real corpse mountain and sea of blood, and he is afraid of a bird.

The hill on which he stood, and the northwesterly wind was blowing, which was particularly cold, and the hot breath he exhaled formed ice on his beard. Most of the soldiers around him were thinly dressed, dirty and torn, and many of them had dried black and purple blood stains on their clothes, some of them their own, and many of them were splashed from the bodies of the officers and soldiers.

Because they had been standing for a long time, many warriors held their spears in their arms and shrank their necks into their round necks as much as possible to resist the cold. There were also people who staggered, standing there tired and sleeping.

"Brothers, get off your horse and rest for a while. It seems that they will not come early. Shang Rang, who was riding on a thousand miles of snow, said. Then he jumped off his horse. The hilt of the sword touched the saddle with a clanging sound of metal.

When everyone had dismounted, he walked to the five ancient pines, which were higher and could see the fire in the east more clearly.

"We still have three days of food, but Tongbai City is only a small city, although there are 5,000 reinforcements, but their combined garrison is only 6,000. Moreover. That Sun Ru and his men were once defeated by our men. Tonight, everyone will sleep happily all night, and when it is dawn, we will go down the mountain and attack Tongbai City, and the food in it is enough for us to eat for a while. ”

His tone was calm and his expression was calm, but these words gave everyone a great encouragement.

An old grass thief named Wang Shun said: "We will definitely be able to take Tongbai, not to mention that Sun Ru is here, even if Qin Zongquan is here, we will not bird him." Even if the Sword Mountain Sword Forest is in the way, it can still rush over. Hum. We have been in the world for nearly ten years, and we have never seen any kind of big battle. ”

Shang Rang nodded. said: "That's right, that's right, we have been rampant in the world for nearly ten years, from the north to the south, from the south to the north, from the east to the west, from the west back to the east, how many feudal towns and horses were defeated in our hands, the two capitals of the Tang Dynasty have been occupied by us for several years, think Gao Piao, Zhou Bao, Wang Duo, Zheng Jin, Cui Anqian, Zhang Zimian These generals have never stopped us, let alone a mere Qin Zongquan." ”

"Taiwei, I heard that Li Jing wants to recruit us, is it true?" A young horseman, not yet twenty years old, asked with a look of doubt and expectation.

"That's right, Li Jing intends to recruit us, but we still have to meet and discuss in detail, we are waiting for Li Jing's envoy here, and the envoy is also our old acquaintance. It turned out that Zhang Guiba, one of the eight festival marshals of our Great Qi, "Shang Rang replied.

Hearing Zhang Guiba's name, everyone couldn't help but be shocked. Zhang Guiba is very famous in the Qi army, the real veteran minister, Zhang Guiba's three brothers are all generals of the Qi army, and Zhang Guiba is also a righteous three brothers with Huo Cun and Ge Congzhou, all of whom are generals. Among the eight handsomes, Zhang Guiba's brothers occupy three positions. However, later in the Battle of Xuzhou, he was captured along with Huo Cun and Zhang Guihou and surrendered to the Qin army. Several years have passed, but unexpectedly, Zhang Guiba actually became the envoy of the Qin army to recruit them.

However, everyone was shocked and faintly looked forward to it. In the Central Plains, now they are shouting and beating like rats crossing the street, if Li Jing is willing to recruit them, then they can breathe a sigh of relief.

"What position does General Zhang hold in the Qin army now?"

"Huaihai Province Zuodu Commander Envoy, Shuyang Bo, Army Brigadier General Rank." Shang Rang replied, but in fact, he didn't know much about the official system of the Qin army, let alone what rank the brigadier general was equivalent to, but since he could be crowned a knight, it was still good, at least after staying in the Qin domain for a few years, Zhang Guiba was not hidden by the bird.

Everyone was talking, but the words were quickly drowned out by the sound of horses' hooves coming from the east. Shang Rang heard the sound of horses' hooves and muttered, "Ah, here it is." When he said this, he was also worried in his heart, and he didn't know whether he was looking forward to it or what. Talking to Qin Jun about Zhao'an, Shang Rang didn't approve of it at first, but among the conditions brought to him by Li Jing's secret envoy, a few of them really made him a little moved. In particular, Li Jing said that he did not need them to enter Li Jing's territory, nor did he annex their arms, and they could still keep the current soldiers and horses, which made him relax his vigilance. As long as he had soldiers and horses in hand, this was enough for him to agree to talk to Li Jing's envoy.

Soon the sound of horses' hooves drew nearer, and then in the sparse bushes, under the cold moonlight, a group of people and horses appeared.

Wang Shun stepped forward, "Is it Brother Dong?" ”

"Yes!" A young man replied immediately.

There were more than a dozen people in this group, and the young man who replied was riding on a big black horse. After walking up the mountain, they all jumped off their horses, and Zhao Dong led the black horse to Shang Rang, and reported: "Taiwei, General Zhang, the envoy of the King of Qin, has arrived at the bottom of the mountain. ”

"How many of them came?" Shang Rang asked cautiously.

"They have a team of more than 100 people in the Huai River, but General Zhang only brought 10 people to the bottom of the mountain."

Shang Rang touched his beard, "Zhengchen is very sincere, well, let's go, we will meet him down." ”

The men and horses descended the hill and made their way along a ravine that was dark and littered with stones, large and small. After walking about two miles, I entered the mountain pass and saw the moonlight again. Led by Zhao Dong, they walked into a pine forest, where the moonlight leaked through the branches and leaves of the pine trees.

The pine waves were gusting, but there was no wind in the woods.

Zhang Guiba saw them coming, and dismounted to greet them.

"Brother Zhengchen!"

"Brother Junyi!"

The two veterans of the grass army reunited again, with infinite emotion, and hugged each other.

After a long time, the two separated and sat on the ground around the burning bonfire.

"Brother Zhengchen, let's talk about it first, what is King Qin's intention?" Shang Rang has always had doubts about Li Jing's recruitment, and now the Qi army is like a lost dog, Li Jing's soldiers are full of generals, and there is no need to recruit them.

Zhang Guiba burst out laughing, "It seems that Brother Junyi has a deep prejudice against King Qin." Actually, it's a win-win situation, so let's open the skylight and say something. To tell the truth, now the Yang brothers have established King Shou as the emperor, respected Li Yi as the emperor, and just canonized the king of Qin as the general of Tiance, and removed the king of Qin from the post of generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses, and turned his head and gave the two concubines of the king of Qin out of their identities, and also privately discussed the desire to establish the eldest daughter of the king of Qin as the new emperor. This matter can be said to have made King Qin very unhappy. ”

"Huh? Why is King Qin unhappy? Shang Rang was a little puzzled, in his opinion, the title of General Li Jing Tiance and the appointment of Li Jing's daughter as the queen would greatly attract Li Jing. Although the generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses was dismissed, a Tiance general made up for it. Even if Li Jing is given the status of a concubine and a concubine, there is some suspicion of interfering in Li Jing's family affairs, but it is nothing.

"Brother Junyi didn't understand it, there is a hostile relationship between the Yang family and the King of Qin, and the Yang family is suddenly like this, on the surface, it seems that he is compromising with the King of Qin. But if you analyze it carefully, it is not difficult to find that this is actually the Yang family showing weakness to the King of Qin, this is a smoke bomb, under this smoke, it is more and more proof that they have decided to do something against the King of Qin. ”

Shang Rang nodded as if he had realized something, in fact he was only half-convinced, he was thinking about what this had to do with him.

"The Yang brothers want to kill the rest of the Qi army, and they have no other plans. Speaking of which, we are all opponents of the Yang brothers, and the enemy of the enemy is a friend, this is the attitude of King Qin. Since we have a common enemy, of course we should cooperate. King Qin doesn't need you to really surrender to us, the so-called Zhao'an is just a name. You don't need to surrender to them, and we won't interfere with you, the two sides are limited to cooperating and dealing with the Yang brothers together. ”

"How to cooperate?" Shang Rang was shocked, if that was the case, he had no reason to refuse.

"It's a very simple cooperation, we will provide you with some food, grass and equipment supplements immediately."

"What kind of reward does King Qin need to get?" Shang Rang knows very well what an exchange of interests is, and Li Jing will not give them money, food, and ordnance in vain.

Zhang Guiba was very satisfied with Shang Rang's cleverness, "In exchange, King Qin hopes that you can march to Caizhou immediately, and it is best to take Caizhou!" ”

"If you take Caizhou, who will Caizhou belong to?" Shang Rang asked with a glare.

"Naturally, it's yours!"

"Completely ours?"

"It's all yours."

"Population and goods are ours?"

"It's all yours, and we won't take anything."

Shang Rang was almost incredulous at first, but after thinking about it, he understood. Just a little bit of land money and grain, Li Jing really won't pay attention to it. The reason why Li Jing contacted them, in fact, was just to pay them to be thugs, and the purpose was just to harass the rear of the Yang brothers and drive a nail into their henchmen.

They are just a pawn of Li Jing, and they are just a pawn.

But Shang Rang only thought about it for a moment, and decided to agree. Even if it is a chess piece, not everyone is qualified to be a pawn. Li Jing needs a pawn, and they need to be a pawn now.

Only by becoming a pawn can you play the chessboard!

(Cooperate with the action of the starting point, open a new - wave Weibo, please pay attention to it: the starting point Muzi blue!) (To be continued......)