The territory has long been annexed by Li Jing, and even the Taining army under his command has been killed in battle, fleeing and fleeing, and the Taining Jiedu, who has 3,000 soldiers and horses left, makes Qi Kerang lie quietly on the collapse, watching the dust fly in the miserable white light from the window. Through the open window, a fresh breeze blew into the room from time to time, making the June stove-like room a little cooler.

A summer cicada on the locust tree outside the window was chirping continuously, and he could clearly see the cicada lying on the almost completely naked tree. The locust blossoms of this locust tree in May are fragrant and charming, and they are crispy and sweet in the mouth.

"The world is big, and the food is the biggest!" Zike muttered weakly. But he turned his eyes and looked at a pottery bowl on the case, inside was a bowl of soup, green and green, not even a little oil star, the clear and shining soup, floating Liao Liao a few grass roots, and a few green leaves, but it was the old leaves of the locust tree outside.

Unable to resist the hunger in his stomach, Ziker took a bowl and took a few gulps, then chewed a few mouthfuls of dry wood-like roots and bark into his stomach.

Although a bowl of grass root and leaf soup filled my stomach a little, I was still very hungry in my heart.

"There is a bird's smell in the mouth!" Zikerang cursed in a low voice, damn it, they all said that the emperor is not a hungry soldier in a war, but now? He Qike made his life for the emperor from the distant coast of the East China Sea, and as a result, his Taining town was swallowed by Li Jing. His soldiers and horses were running out, wandering around the Central Plains and Tongguan, and later they were at the forefront of this to defend the Son of Heaven against the Yellow Nest. But what about the result. They relied on a mere tens of thousands of soldiers. Guarded Tongguan. Blocked the Yellow Nest.

But the Son of Heaven fled to Jiannan Xichuan without saying a word, and the most hateful thing was that as soon as the Son of Heaven left, there was almost no one in charge of Chang'an, the capital division. As for the Tongguan front, even more so. The defenders of Tongguan have been out of food for a month. Two months ago, the rations of the armies were halved. A month ago, there was no food at all. The armies themselves figured out how to solve it.

Forcibly requisitioned the people's grain, seized cattle and killed horses, and later flew in the sky, swam in the water, and crawled on the ground, and the hundred miles near Tongguan were almost eaten up by them.

Now it is getting more and more difficult to get food, and I am hungry and full, and even this meal is full, and I almost rely on drinking wild vegetable soup to support my fullness.

I can't hold on to this day, if it weren't for the fact that he was a guest army, his hometown would have been occupied by Li Jing. The way back to the east was blocked by the Yellow Nest again, and Zike Jean had already patted his ass and left.

What am I going to do? A thought crossed Zikerjean's head. But he couldn't make up his mind.

The sound of the cicada outside stopped abruptly, and one of the guards in the courtyard shot the cicada with an arrow. He couldn't help but praise secretly in his heart, this must have been shot with wide eyes, this guy's archery skills are the best among his own soldiers. Sure enough, he appeared under the tree with wide eyes, pulled out the arrow, threw the cicada directly into his mouth, and swallowed it after a few rattling chews, with a little satisfaction on his face.

It must have been chicken-flavored, Zikerrang licked his chapped lips, regretting a little that he hadn't made the first move.

Zikerang suddenly made up his mind, and the cicada finally made a decision in his heart. His scorched lips twitched, as if he wanted to scream.

The Son of Heaven had left behind the soldiers on the front lines of Chang'an and Tongguan and went to Jiannan Xichuan alone, and the aristocratic officials in Chang'an also followed. They have been without food for two months, who cares if they live or die?

Now the price of grain in Tongguan has reached the price of 30,000 yuan a bucket, and even if you have money, you may not have the opportunity to get it.

The most important thing is that among the tens of thousands of generals in Tongguan, how many are rich?

Before and after, Tongguan now has 50,000 defenders, but among them, there are almost 20,000 Shence troops from Chang'an, who have already impersonated them before they came. Those children of the forbidden army in Beijing, who were willing to come to death, found some beggars and homeless people, and spent money to replace them. The more than 20,000 people have no effect at all except for consuming food every day and competing with them for everything they eat.

The remaining 30,000 horses, because they are not the Shence army, but Cui Anqian, Du Xian, Zhang Zimian and his town soldiers, can be regarded as a little appearance, ensuring that Tongguan has been held to this day.

But even if they were loyal to the Li Tang Dynasty, so what? How can you fight a war without food?

He got up and got out of bed.

Zikerrang took his sword and went out of the courtyard gate and into the street, leaving the fort and going to another fort not far away. As soon as he entered the fort, he saw at a glance that Zhang Chengfan, the general of the Shence Army who was stationed with him in the forbidden ditch of Tongguan, was bent over, holding a sharp knife in his hand, and was slaughtering a cow.

His heart jumped sharply, and his lips trembled slightly. He stopped, slowly gestured, and retreated to the corner with his subordinates, silently observing the tall and fat Zhang Chengfan. Zhang Chengfan was careful, holding a peeling knife with a focused expression, and concentrated on peeling the cowhide. This fat unlucky officer of the Shence Army, skinning cowhides, is very skillful and agile in his movements, and his hands are extremely powerful. The one-foot-long sharp knife was like a toy in his hand, and he pulled the cowhide in one hand and held the knife in the other, and in the rustling sound, the cowhide was intact, and there was no excess meat, and it was peeled off little by little.

Zhang Chengfan had just peeled off the entire cowhide when he heard footsteps behind him. He looked back and saw that Qi Kerang, the envoy of the Taining Army and Zheng Ru, who were stationed in the forbidden ditch together, came over with a team of guards.

Like his own soldiers, Zikerjean was well-armoured, but all of them were hungry and yellow, and their faces were a little puffy.

The group came suddenly, and Zikrang stopped when he walked in front of him, staring at the cow that had been skinned.

There was a moment of silence.

For a long time, Zi Kerang seemed to have seen enough of the skinless cow, and then turned his head to look at Zhang Chengfan.

Zhang Chengfan picked up the skinning knife again, walked to the side of the cow, squatted down and cut several thin strips of red meat from the cow, took a plate and handed it to Qi Kerang's side.

Zike rang grabbed a handful of beef strips with his hands without politeness, no matter how many they were, not to mention that there was fresh blood on them, stuffed them directly into his mouth, and chewed them violently. Then he swallowed it violently without waiting for it to chew, swallowing too much for a while, and getting stuck in his throat. He rolled his eyes. Zhao Dayan behind him hurriedly came over and patted him on the back. It's hard to swallow the meat.

Swallowing a few sticks of raw beef, Zike let a flush rise on his face and let out a long breath, his heart full of flavors.

Zhang Chengfan asked Qi Kerang's subordinates to cut some meat for them to eat, and then smiled and took Qi Kerang's hand into the house.

Qi Kerang and Zhang Chengfan guarded an abandoned ancient road in Tongguan called the Forbidden Ditch.

The location of the forbidden ditch is bordered by the Yellow River in the north and the Qinling Mountains in the south. Between the mountains and the river, there is a huge natural plateau called Intohara. When Tongguan was first built, it was located on the Lintoe Plain, and the past travel had to pass through the Yuanwang ditch, cross the golden ditch, and go around a big bend in the shape of an inverted few characters. Around the late period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, due to soil erosion and erosion of the Yellow River, a new, more convenient east-west avenue was formed between the bank of the Yellow River and the Lintoe Plain, and the Tongguan City Tower moved north. Controlling the new road, the original Tongguan old road was gradually abandoned. By the time of the Tang Dynasty. In order to facilitate management, the imperial court stipulated that the past travelers were only allowed to take the avenue, and it was forbidden to pass through the old road of Jingou, and Jingou was renamed as Bangou.

On the abandoned old road, for military defense, the imperial court built 12 defensive forts with a length and width of about four zhang and a height of about two and a half zhang on the high ground on both sides of the forbidden ditch, commonly known as the twelve cities.

The Twelve Cities can be condescending to achieve attack coverage of the forbidden ditch, so as to tightly seal this path.

The Guancheng of Tongguan was guarded by Cui Anqian, Du Xian, and Zhang Zimian. And this Tongguan trail was handed over to Qi Kerang, Zhang Chengfan, Wang Shihui, Zhao Ke and others.

Qi Kerang was the chief general of the twelve cities of the forbidden ditch, and Zhang Chengfan, Wang Shihui and Zhao Ke, the three generals of the Shence Army, were the deputy generals. Cui Anqian also knew that the people brought by Zhang Chengfan and them were unreliable, so he simply sent all the forbidden troops here. and led by Zikjang. The Taining Army and the Shence Army combined were 33,000, but in fact, 20,000 were impostor beggars, and there were no more than 10,000 capable of fighting.

The third general Cui Anqian led 20,000 troops to defend the main city of Tongguan, and let Qi Kerang and the Shence army guard the forbidden ditch, which was actually a good calculation. In comparison, the forbidden ditch is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is not suitable for the Huangchao army to attack on a large scale.

Qi Kerang and Zhang Chengfan walked into the house together, but a team of Qi Kerang's personal soldiers outside had already drawn their knives and rushed up, rushing to cut the meat and eat it.

Zhang Chengfan invited Qi Kerang to his seat and personally poured him a glass of wine.

Tongguan has already run out of food, but Zhang Chengfan has wine and meat here, and Qi Kerang smiled and said nothing. said deliberately: "Where did General Zhang buy this wine and meat, and I will also introduce my brother to buy some." ”

Zhang Chengfan smiled, "The price of this wine and meat is not cheap." ”

"Oh, let's hear it, where did Brother Zhang come from?"

Although Zhang Chengfan is a general of the forbidden army, but now that even the Son of Heaven has run away, how much better can he be than Zikerang? After a month of hunger, he couldn't stand it. First, he sent people to the nearby cities and villages to rob them, and after robbing the cities and villages, they quickly robbed all the things they could rob. Recently, Zhang Chengfan quietly got in touch with an officer in the department of Lin Yan, the nephew of Huang Chao outside the Guan. The two sides began to do business secretly, and this business was very simple, Zhang Chengfan sent troops to capture the people near Tongguan, and then sold them to Qi army officers in exchange for food. The other party's favorite thing to buy is young and beautiful women, especially the yellow flower girls of big families, then young women, and then young men. Five people can be exchanged for a sheep, and ten people can be exchanged for a bag of grain.

Hearing Zhang Chengfan say the deal so directly, Zikerang was not angry, and his face was calm. There was no reaction at all to such a deal of collaborating with the enemy and captive the people for sale, but he just picked up his wine glass and took a big sip.

A newly slaughtered old ox was directly eaten raw by Qi Kerang's team of personal soldiers and Zhang Chengfan's personal soldiers, and he didn't even need to cook it.

Qi Kerang and Zhang Chengfan walked out again, and Qi Kerang first stood under the tree in the courtyard and a big bubble of urine, and then climbed to the top of the fort with a sword.

The twelve forts are all the same length, width and height, four zhang each in length and width, and two and a half zhang in height.

The top of the fort is a very wide platform, with a red flag on the top, no wind at noon, and the flag hanging low under the rolling heat wave on the top.

Zhao Da, who had just eaten a full meal of raw beef, watched as Qi Kerang stood on the top, poking his head out to look east. He had a long neck and a cocked mouth, like a wanderer looking out at his hometown.

Wide-eyed to hear a voice, it was the sound of teeth crushing.

Zikerang drew his sword with a solemn expression.

He stared wide-eyed, waiting for what the big marshal was about to say. Although it was a little awkward and uncomfortable to lean on his neck.

Zikerang held his sword aloft, his lips trembling, as if he was doing something extremely solemn.

Zhang Dayan heard him scolding lightly, scolding the way of the world, scolding Huang Chao, scolding the Son of Heaven, and scolding Li Jing.

Then, with a vigorous wave of his arm, the autumn-like sword flashed like a match, and after a shout, the flagpole with the thickness of a bowl under the blazing sun suddenly broke and fell to the bottom of the castle. The crimson military flag fluttered in the fall.

Zhang was excited, although he was only a member of Zikrang's personal army, but in fact he had been a soldier for twenty years. The sword was unsheathed and the red flag fell, which made his blood boil and he was even more full of anticipation for what Zikerjean was about to say.

Zike let a sword cut off the military flag, stood on the top of the fort, and shouted loudly in a long voice: "We, it's the opposite!" (To be continued......)