Chapter 4 Iron Wall Enclosure

Zhu Jin carried two letters for help from Yang Yan in Songzhou and led 300 Tang soldiers from the east gate of Songzhou. One arrow hit Li Han's left arm. Li Hanzhi saw that Zhu Jin's soldiers were few and ordered his subordinates to pursue him. Zhu Jin had no intention of fighting, waved the iron doll, rushed forward desperately, penetrated Li Han's camp, and went straight to Chuqiu with a whip. When he arrived at Chengwu, Zhu Jin counted his subordinates, leaving only 20 or 30 horses. He handed the distress letter sent to Xue Neng to Xuzhou to a small cavalry leader, and allocated more than a dozen horses to the little leader, and hurried to Xuzhou to submit it to Xue Neng.

After arranging this matter, Zhu Jin led the rest of the Tang soldiers to run to Yanzhou to meet Cao Quanyu. Zhu Jin and his entourage arrived at the city of Yanzhou and shouted to open the door when the sun was setting. Tang Bing, the head of the city, looked at Zhu Jin and his entourage, who were all dressed as Tang Jun. The leader was a childish boy, and asked, "Where did the hairy child come from? What are you going to do in Yanzhou?"

Zhu Jin replied proudly immediately, "This young general's name is Zhu Jin. I was sent by Lord Yang Yan of Songzhou to see General Cao Quanyang with a letter asking for help. Open the door quickly! Can you afford to miss the military situation?

Hearing this, the garrison quickly opened the city gate. Zhu Jin and his party entered the city gate. As soon as they arrived at the gate, Zhu Jin's accompanying Tang soldiers were stopped by the city gate officers and asked them to stay at the gate. They only let Zhu Jin go to see Cao Quanhai alone and sent six or seven Tang soldiers to follow.

Cao Quanyu listened to the report of the soldiers in Yanzhou and said that Zhu Jin, a young general in Songzhou, asked for a meeting, so he ordered Zhu Jin to go to see him. Zhu Jin stepped into the government office, went to the lobby, made a bow, took out a letter, and said to Cao Quanyu, "General Cao, I am Zhu Jin, a general of Songzhou. Lord Yang sent me to submit the letter of help to General Cao in person and ask General Cao to read it."

Cao Quanyu ordered his own soldiers to take the distress letter from Zhu Jin's hand and submit it to him again. Then he read it from beginning to end, looked up and looked at Zhu Jin and asked, "How did you get out of Songzhou?"

Zhu Jin smiled and briefly described how he broke out. Cao Quanqi picked up his beard and nodded frequently: "Since ancient times, heroes have come out of youth. The little general is brave, and I admire it!"

Zhu Jin waved her hand and said, "The carving skills are not enough. Zhu Jin often heard his brother Zhu Xuan mention you. His brother said that General Cao and his son Cao Yi were excellent in martial arts, brave and loyal to the Tang Dynasty, so I admire General Cao and his son very much!"

Cao Quanyu laughed and said, "I ate the Tang Dynasty, received the favor of the country, and did his best to protect the people for the Tang Dynasty, and vowed to destroy the grass bandits. So you are Zhu Xuan's younger brother. No wonder you are so brave. I have heard Zhu Xuan's name for a long time, and an eight-treasure turning ring knife makes him fascinated. In the future, if there is a chance, I and Cao Yi want to learn Zhu Xuan's martial arts face to face.

"Okay, our brothers like to meet friends with martial arts, General Cao. This time you and Cao Yi personally led the army to rescue Songzhou and defeated the Huangchao thief. Let's compare martial arts. What do you think?"

Cao Quanyu nodded: "Well, I also have this intention. Yang Yan is my old friend. Now he is besieged by Huang Chao and asked for help from me. I must be in charge of this matter!" Besides, Huang Chao repaired our father and son so badly in Qingzhou last time. I have always held a grudge, and my heart of revenge is more and more urgent. This time Huang Chao led his troops to attack Songzhou, which was a good opportunity for me to take revenge!"

At this time, Cao Yi walked into the lobby and saw Zhu Jin and asked, "I just patrolled the city. I heard from the Songzhou soldiers at the gate that you took 300 soldiers to break into the thief Li Hanzhi's camp alone and shot Li Hanzhi, didn't you?"

Zhu Jin raised his head and pouted: "What then? So what if not?"

Cao Yi laughed a few times, patted Zhu Jin on the shoulder, and praised, "Okay, you have guts!" Cao Yi likes warriors like you! Tonight, I'm going to have a few drinks with you and talk about martial arts, hahaha!"

Zhu Jin said crisply, "Okay, but first, I will drink at most three mugs of wine. If I don't drink more, I will go to Songzhou for rescue tomorrow!" After saying that, he turned his head to Cao Quanyu, straightened his chest and said, "General Cao, let me and Cao Yi be the vanguard and attack the thieves camp. You lead the army to respond later. What do you think?"

Cao Quanyu shouted, "Okay, that's the arrangement. You and Cao Yi lead 10,000 troops, take the lead and attack the Huang Chao Battalion, and I will lead 20,000 soldiers to follow up. Remember, you have to withdraw to camp quickly after you get it. Do you understand?"

Cao Yi and Zhu Jin agreed, and then the two left the government office hand in hand, drank and talked about martial arts, so they didn't talk about it in detail.

Besides, on the Xuzhou side, Xue Neng read Yang Yan's handwritten letter for help, frowned and paced back and forth in the government office, which was difficult to decide for a moment. Xue Neng knew that Huang Chao was good at using troops and had strong combat effectiveness. He was afraid that his own soldiers would be annihilated to rescue Songzhou, weaken his strength, and his position in Fangzhen would decline. Xue Neng lowered his head and was anxious. Two people came in from the outside. Xue Neng heard the sound of footsteps and looked up. Seeing his confidants Shi Pu and Chen Jingyu, he said, "You two came at the right time. I just received a letter from Yang Yan. Huang Chao thieves surrounded Songzhou. Songzhou was in a critical situation and asked me to send rescuers quickly. What do you think about supporting Songzhou and defeating the bandits?

Shi Pu thought for a moment and offered a plan to Xue Neng: "Lord Xue, the Huangchao thief is not worried. The city of Songzhou is high and deep, and the thief can't take it for ten days and a half months. I heard that Zhang Zimian has worked very hard since he became the coach of the Northern Front of the Central Plains of the Tang Dynasty and is preparing to destroy the main force of Huang Chao in one fell swoop. It is definitely a profitable business for adults to send troops to rescue Songzhou this time. Xuzhou sent troops westward, and Zhang Zimian must also be advancing to Songzhou. In this way, the attack on things will definitely break the main force of Huang Chao. Through this war, adults can improve their prestige and expand their strength. The opportunity is fleeting. I hope you can make a decision as soon as possible!"

Chen Jingyu also agrees with Shi Pu's view.

Xue Neng listened to Shi Pu's words and thought about it carefully for a while. He felt that Shi Pu's words were reasonable. This time, he must send troops to help Songzhou and get it in one fell swoop. Yang Yan and I are on the same list, and they have a deep personal relationship with each other. This time, they also took the opportunity to deepen their friendship. Xue Neng made up his mind and said to Shi Pu and Chen Jingyu, "Xuzhou has not been peaceful recently. The thief Qin Yan plundered everywhere. I want to deal with these thieves. This time, I will rely on two people to help Songzhou. I will allocate 20,000 horses to you. Shi Pu will be the main general and Jing Yu will be the deputy general. Tomorrow, I will send troops west into Songzhou. Remember: Be sure to keep your strength and try not to fight if you can. Let the soldiers and horses in other towns fight with the yellow nest thieves first, and you can assist. This is our hard-trained Xuzhou strong team. Don't make unnecessary sacrifices.

Shi Pu and Chen Jingyu answered loudly: "Please rest assured, Lord Xue, we will do as you ordered to protect the Xuzhou soldiers and achieve the greatest victory at the lowest cost!"

While Cao Quanyu and the Tang army on Shipu Road rushed to Songzhou day and night to help, Zhang Zimian, Gui Renshao, Li Changyan, Lei Yinfu, Miao Jin and He Zhi led 100,000 troops to march east along the north bank of the Bian River and rushed to Songzhou. The black clouds crushed the city, and the main force of Huang Chao was under the attack of the Tang army of Sanlu, very Critical!

The rebels reported the military situation around to Huang Chao and Chai Cun one after another. Huang Chao and Chai Cun quickly summoned the generals to the Central Military Account to discuss the military situation. After a while, the generals arrived. Huang Chao said, "Brothers, we have received the latest information that Cao Quanyu has sent 30,000 troops to reinforce Songzhou. At present, the Tang army has advanced to the Chuqiu area; Xue Neng of Xuzhou sent 20 million troops to the front line of Dangshan; Zhang Zimian's army of 100,000 people has arrived near Yongqiu. . There are 150,000 reinforcements of the Tang army. I estimate that the defenders of Songzhou are no less than 20,000, and our army is nearly 100,000, and our army is at a disadvantage. How to fight this battle? I want to hear your opinions."

The generals have different opinions and are unsettling. Chai Cun said, "Although the three-way reinforcement of the Tang army has an advantage in the direction of Songzhou, looking at the overall situation of the Central Plains, the strength of our army has been greatly enhanced compared with the past, and it has the conditions to fight with the Tang army in the Central Plains. However, in addition to the Central Plains combat troops, the Tang army also has soldiers and horses from other surrounding towns, so in terms of general strength, the volunteers are still at a disadvantage. Cao Min's soldiers and horses in the second village can no longer be mobilized to contain Cui Anqian in Xuzhou. At present, we can mobilize Sun Mei's Chinese army and Yue Lingfei's fourth village, about 670,000 people, as well as Wen Ying and Xiao Lu's people in Huaidu Village, which is estimated to be more than 10,000 people. In this way, there are 80,000 people together. They should order Sun Mei, Yue Lingfei and Wen Ying to go to Songzhou and participate in the battle at all costs. Their task is to attack Zhang Zimian's rear army, so that Zhang Zimian can't fight with our army with all their strength. We can free our hands to deal with Cao Quanyu and Shi Pu. As long as we defeat these two Tang soldiers, we can be invincible!"

The generals nodded one after another and praised Chai Cun's deployment for being very appropriate.

Huang Chao smiled, stood up and said, "In order to better carry out this battle of Songzhou, inform Wang Chongyin and Xu Tangju in the area of Dongting Lake, and quickly transferred troops to cross the Yangtze River to the north, reinforce Meng Kai and Zhao Zhang in the area of Lushan, Cao Shixiong's troops stationed in Hongzhou, sent troops to attack Raozhou, and mobilized Zeng Yuanyu's army eastward. This time we are going to weave a big net for Zeng Yuanyu and Zhang Zimian and let them get into the net. We will annihilate the Tang army in the Central Plains, completely reverse the war situation in the Central Plains, and change the situation of our army's previous passively beaten!"