met free Chapter 211: Big Spread
Chapter 211: Big Spread
After escaping, Zhang Xiaosi headed towards Shenzhen County. It was already dawn and the sky was gradually getting brighter.
As soon as the Shenzhen defenders opened the city gate, they saw hundreds of people approaching the gate. Without saying a word, they raised their swords and started chopping them down without any hesitation.
Immediately afterwards, a group of cavalry rushed from behind and the city gate was quickly lost.
After entering the city, the county magistrate was arrested, the granary was raided, and most of the county's 500 soldiers surrendered to Zhang Xiaosi's army.
Shenzhen was occupied by Zhang Xiaosi. The first family to learn of this information was the Anping Cui family. This was the place where the Anping Boling Cui family made their fortune. The Cui family had more than 10,000 servants and guards.
"Quickly inform Dingzhou Camp and the surrounding counties to strengthen the defense."
The elders of the Cui family were a little panicked when they heard about this. The Lu family had been making quite a stir recently, and after discussion, the Cui family had decided not to get involved. Only some of their seasoning business had been affected.
The expressway has always been operating well. After the Wang family got involved this time, it is estimated that they will not be able to get the dividends at the end of the year. As for the Li family in Zhao County, they are busy with the war this time, and I don’t know whether they will come to distribute dividends at the end of the year.
Zhang Xiaosi's army will not be able to occupy Shenzhen for long. What the Cui family is most worried about is that they will go north and pass through the Cui family's sphere of influence and the operating scope of the expressway.
In fact, the Cui family was overthinking this time. The Zhang family army was in a rather bad state this time. They planned to go north along the river, reach Gaoyang and Renqiu, and then go straight to Yizhou.
It was precisely because of the Cui family's actions that it attracted the attention of Dingzhou, Yanzhou, and even the court.
The Dingzhou area is the frontier of the imperial city. The Ministry of War sent Hong Kui to Bingzhou. If the court wanted to send another general, it would inevitably be stretched. Moreover, the emperor was not in the court at that time.
The court was very worried that if there was chaos in Dingzhou, it would affect the important capital.
"Has Daming Prefecture's Commander-in-Chief, Pharmacist Guo, arrived at the main hall?"
A few days ago, the court discussed the current war situation and planned to transfer Guo Yaoshi from the National Prestige Army back to discuss the war situation in Dingzhou.
"Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief Guo is waiting outside the palace."
A eunuch ran in from the door and said to Wei Rong.
Wei Rong looked at the people beside the dragon throne, bowed and said, "Please summon them into the palace!"
Zhao Wei knew this was Wei Rong's hint. He glanced at Zhao Kang and said, "Brother, please!"
Zhao Kang understood that this was Zhao Wei's trick and ignored him. He continued to sit on a stool next to the dragon throne without saying a word.
Zhao Wei, feeling embarrassed, said to the eunuch, "Summon him!"
"Announce..." the eunuch said in a shrill voice, "Daming Prefecture General Guo Yaoshi enters the palace to discuss matters..."
As the voice fell, a dark shadow appeared at the palace gate and a middle-aged man strode in.
He was wearing black thick-soled hard-surface combat boots and metal shin guards on his calves.
The lower body is a battle skirt made of iron plates, and the upper body is a tightly interlocked stainless steel breastplate.
His arms were equipped with leather arm guards and metal wrist guards, his hands were holding iron gauntlets, and he wore a red tasseled golden helmet with gems on the top, looking very majestic.
The fact that he entered the palace wearing armor shows that he was of extraordinary status. If he was allowed to bring a sword into the palace, he must at least be a prince.
"Your Majesty..." The man clasped his fists and looked up. The person sitting in the middle was the crown prince, and the emperor was not there. There were two princes on both sides of the crown prince. He was stunned and thought to himself: What the hell is going on?
However, this thought only flashed through his mind, and he quickly returned to normal, continuing, "Greetings to the Crown Prince and His Royal Highnesses."
Seeing this, Zhao Wei took the initiative to say, "Don't be polite. This prince and the two prime ministers invited you to the capital to discuss important matters."
As soon as the words came out, a burst of discussion immediately arose from the court officials standing below.
"What's the point of letting officials from Daming Prefecture come to Beijing..."
"Military generals entering the capital require an imperial edict from His Majesty!"
Everyone murmured, but no one stood up to question it.
Now all of this seems extremely abnormal.
……
After resting for two days in Shenzhen County, we headed north along the other side of the canal.
Zhang Xiaosi, who was leading an army of 30,000 on horseback, looked up at the sky from time to time, gazing at the clouds in the distance, only to feel that they were no different from the grassland, all out of reach.
The world is so big, where can the Zhang family army find a safe place?
"Speed up the march!" Deputy General Kashna rode back and forth on horseback, constantly urging the marching army.
Among these 30,000 people, there were surrendered soldiers from Dingzhou County and soldiers from Shenzhen County Government. Most of these people laid down their weapons without hesitation and joined Zhang Xiaosi's army simply because they were afraid of being harmed.
They bid farewell to their hometown where they had lived for many years without a trace of nostalgia. They were once passionate young men who had pledged their patriotism, but now all they wanted was to survive.
It's not their fault that this happened.
This is what they thought in their hearts. Faced with life and death, who would still remember the young man they once were? All they had was an unknown fate, an unknown life and death.
After two days' walking, they were only ten miles away from Gaoyang.
"How's the investigation going?" asked Zhang Xiaosi.
"Gaoyang has received reinforcements, at least 20,000, and they are said to have just arrived."
"It looks like we're being targeted. Are there any pursuers behind us?"
"There are several large ships on the canal, loaded with supplies and food, and several thousand soldiers are also traveling with them."
"Where do you think they'll be waiting for us?"
Zhang Xiaosi was in high spirits, feeling that these people would definitely block him from the front. Although he had escaped Dingzhou County's jurisdiction after two days of raiding, he still dared not slack off or take precautions.
"Since Gaoyang is under guard, let's go forward and rest here."
Zhang Xiaosi pointed to a vast swamp ahead. He believed that supplying tens of thousands of people here should not be a problem.
The army continued to march forward according to Zhang Xiaosi's instructions. In the evening, they arrived at a place where the water and sky were one color and the horizon was endless. The White River and the black soil crisscrossed from south to north, and the water surface was covered with reeds.
The river channel is winding and the water flow is slow, forming large swamps. In the riverbed, there are occasional shallow hills with some sparse trees.
It happened to be snowing today, so the gathering of 30,000 people seemed particularly strange.
"It's getting late. Pass the order and rest here." Kashna shouted to the soldiers behind him, and his voice was carried by the cavalry captain in the team.
"Although this place is desolate, fortunately we have enough food with us. I plan to rest here for three days."
"General, I think we shouldn't stay here for long. After all, this isn't our grassland. We can't come and go freely. If there are pursuers from behind and our retreat is cut off from the front, we'll be in trouble."
"Ah! My Zhang family army has been active in and outside the Great Wall for many years, but we have never suffered such injustice, being chased and fleeing everywhere."
Zhang Xiaosi watched the soldiers searching for water in the swamp. Snowflakes were floating in the sky, just like life on the grassland. When the people around him reminded him, he suddenly realized that he was still in the territory of the Great Zhou.
After many days, the Lu family's attack on Guangchang County was not going well and they had already withdrawn their troops. Only Zhang Xiaosi lost contact. The commander of the Zhang family army, Zhang Xuegeng, was quite anxious and went to the military camp to find Zhang Xiaosi's brother Zhang Xiaofeng.
It happened that Zhang Xiaojun was practicing spearmanship in the yard. He had a thin linen cloth tied around his waist and a sleeveless training suit with a high collar. With his bright silver spear, he swept through thousands of troops, opened up the pond and stopped the flow. His dance was dazzling and drew applause from everyone.