Chapter 371 Run away

Chapter 371

The intention of more than 6,000 soldiers and horses stationed in Xishuizhai was to oppress Ansu and have the responsibility to protect Baoding Prefecture and cut off the road of the thief soldiers to the west. At this moment, Baoding Government urgently asked for help. Naturally, there is no need to think much about it and lead the army to help immediately.

The next morning, the army arrived outside the east gate of Baoding Mansion, but did not hear the sound of the fight against the city, but the army did not dare to take it lightly and still set up a formation to cover it. However, thousands of ragged people stood there tremblingly on the open ground of the east gate shrouded in morning fog. They knew that they were all unarmed refugees. People, there are no thieves attacking the city.

"What's going on?" Tan Zhangyue, the commander of Bauhinia Guanwei, immediately shouted and asked.

"Your Excellency, I don't understand it even if I wait." The generals are also confused.

"Catch a few people to ask what's going on." Tan Zhang shouted angrily and ran around all night to get here, but it turned out to be an empty run. He was worried for nothing. How could he not be angry?

Several yellow and thin-faced people were brought to Tan Zhangma. Tan Zhang shouted and asked, "Who are you?" What are you doing outside the gate of Baoding Mansion?

A white-browed old man knelt down and trembled and said, "Master, I'm waiting for a refugee who escaped from Ansu. I rushed here last night and wanted to take refuge in Baoding Mansion, but after shouting all night, the gate of Baoding Mansion was closed, and the little people had nowhere to go. Please beg the military master for your kindness and let the officers and soldiers open the gate. Let me wait to enter the city to escape."

Tan Zhang scolded angrily. Dong Jie, the governor of Baoding, did something famously. A group of refugees called the door into the city and were actually regarded as thieves to attack the city and rushed over in the middle of the night, not to mention how annoyed he was.

The military and political officials of Baoding Prefecture, who had been frightened all night in the city, did not see the fighting between the two armies, and also felt that something was wrong, so they opened the gate, and more than 2,000 soldiers and horses gathered around the Baoding magistrate Dong Jiecheng to inquire. After learning about the situation, they were also very surprised.

"This... Last night, I heard these people raise their torches and shouting, and some people shot arrows at the city. How could the refugees arrive?" Dong Jie said.

Tan Zhang grabbed a refugee's collar and opened his mouths left and right and said, "You dare to shoot arrows at the top of the city. What kind of refugee are you? You must be a disguised rebel!"

The refugees knelt down and kowtowed and shouted for injustice. The white-haired old man shook his voice and said, "Your Excellency, we were driven here by the thief soldiers. The food in Ansu City was run out, and the cattle, sheep, chickens and horses were slaughtered. The thief soldiers said that there was no food to survive us, so they burned our house and sent hundreds of thieves to drive me away. They came to Baoding Mansion and said that God has the virtue of life and let us escape into Baoding Mansion to live. We are deeply affected by thieves and soldiers, so we naturally want it.

"Then what do you do for archery?"

"That's the arrows shot by the thieves. They said that archery attracted the attention of the defenders. They also said that they were afraid that the defenders would not dare to open the gate when it was dark, so we lit a torch and shouted outside the gate, so..."

Everyone was stunned, and Dong Jie said with a ashamed face, "Chief Tan, this is a mistake. Last night, I saw someone shooting arrows at the city and the torches. There were a large number of people, so I thought it was a thief's surprise attack. I was afraid that Baoding would be lost, so I asked the general to come to rescue. Since I have arrived here, please allow me to welcome my brothers in the capital to reward me. Fan, to relieve his shame.

Tan Zhang didn't say much, and he can't blame Dong Jie. The thief may really plan to take advantage of the opportunity of Baoding Mansion to open the door to accept refugees to attack the city. It is also possible to escape after failure.

At present, the army searched the refugees from head to toe and confirmed that they were all unarmed pure people. Then they were allowed to enter the city and arranged them all in the school grounds of Nancheng to cook porridge to relieve them.

From the mouth of the refugees, it was learned that Ansu City had been ruined by thieves. There were many men in the city, and the number of thieves must be many. Tan Zhang did not dare to wait for a long time. After ordering the soldiers to rest outside the city for two hours, he hurried back to Xishui Village. Dong Jie, the governor of Baoding, tried his best to stay. No, so he ordered people to lift hundreds of pigs and sheep to apologize, and secretly stuffed 200 taels of silver to Tan Zhang.

Tan Zhang led the army to rush back, but on the way, he saw dozens of horses coming head-on, but the leader was a thousand households left in Xishui Village. The thousand households saw Tan Zhang quickly roll out of the saddle and salute.

Tan Zhang asked, "What are you doing if you don't stay in Xishui Village?"

The thousand households said, "The command of Tan sent to Ansu last night to report back, saying that the gate of Ansu was opened, and there was no one under the city. The sentinel was afraid of fraud and did not dare to approach the reconnaissance. The humble position felt a little strange. Well, he was planning to take his brothers to the suburbs of Ansu to explore the truth."

Tan Zhang's heart was shocked and said, "No one is empty? This is strange. Baoding Prefecture was not raided by thieves, but thousands of refugees were driven outside Baoding Prefecture to seek asylum.

The thousand households were surprised and said, "That's strange. Since the thief soldiers did not attack Baoding, why did they open the gate and attack Ansu? What kind of empty city plan did they play?"

Tan Zhang frowned and thought for a while, and suddenly patted his thigh and shouted, "It's broken."

"Your Excellency, what's wrong?"

"Don't ask, we may have been tricked. Let's go on and turn around to the east to attack Ansu County."

"But...Your Excellency, didn't Governor Gu say that he was not allowed to attack? We are disobeying the military order."

"If you disobey, I'm afraid there is no trace of thieves in Ansu City." Tan Zhang scolded and urged the horse to go east. The army quickly turned around and rushed to Ansu County. In the evening, they rushed to Ansu County. However, they saw that there was no one under the city, and the gates of the city were open, and there were still unquenched flames of smoke in the city.

Tan Zhang ordered the army to enter the city. Several generals were still waiting to be dissuaded and were afraid of being tricked by the thief soldiers, but Tan Zhang had concluded in his heart that the thief soldiers had abandoned the city and fled for a long time. The army poured into the city without encountering any resistance. There was not even a hair of the thief soldiers in the city. Instead, hundreds of tortured and half-dead women were found in the city. Obviously, the thief soldiers left and left.

After Tan Zhang hurriedly ordered people to treat these women, bandaged them with medicine and fed them with clean water and food, dozens of women regained their ability to speak. Tan Zhang quickly asked about the traces of the thief soldiers. Most of the women were confused. They were taken by the thief soldiers as ** for pleasure. They were tortured dozens of times a day and couldn't wait to die. There was no intention to control the movement of the thief soldiers; Tan Zhang asked for a long time, but no woman answered.

Tan Zhangzheng was anxious and suddenly heard a woman in the corner say, "General, the slave family knows something, but I don't know if it's what the general wants."

Tan Zhang said quickly, "Come on, come on."

The woman said, "I listened to the two thieves talking at night..."

Tan Zhang interrupted her and said, "How did you hear their conversation?"

The woman lowered her head and cried silently and whispered for a long time, "The slave family was forced to serve the two dog thieves. In... in their room... the slave family heard their conversation."

Tan Zhang suddenly said quickly, "Come on, what did you hear?"

The woman said, "The slave family knew that one of the two thieves was named Liu Qi and the other was called Zhao Madman. Yesterday evening, the two of them drank in the room and said a lot of words. The slave family didn't understand it, but what they said to drive away the people and pretended to attack Baoding, and then hit east and west or something. The slave family estimated that it must be gloomy. Conspiracy."

Tan Zhang's heart was bright. It turned out that everything was premeditated. The thief's attack on Baoding Mansion was a cover. Under this cover, he attacked east and west and evacuated Ansu City. The purpose of their attack on Baoding Prefecture is obviously to mobilize officers and soldiers to expose cracks in the iron wall-like enclosure to break through.

When Baoding Prefecture was attacked, it was nothing more than its own soldiers and horses and Jinyi Guards in Xin'an County east of Baoding Prefecture. Then the direction of the raid of the thief soldiers is likely to be south or northwest.

Tan Zhanghan has come down. It's okay if the thief soldiers go south, because the soldiers and horses in Xin'an County do not move, and they still have the power to resist. However, if the thief soldiers go northwest, they happen to lead the soldiers to rescue Baoding, just giving the thief soldiers a gap, and it will be over.

Tan Zhang quickly ordered and sent cavalry to inform Gu Dayong stationed in Heyang to explain the situation. At the same time, he sent people to search south immediately and notified Song Nan, the commander of Jinyiwei in Xin'an County. At the same time, he immediately led troops to retreat to Xishuizhai, widely explored horses, and searched along various routes in the northwest.

Soon, in Lijia Town, 20 miles northwest of Ansu, the sentries found the bodies of the people killed along the way. The thieves must be afraid that the people would leak the wind. Qing Zhuang took away the army. The old and weak women and children were killed and buried them. It may be grass at night, and the bodies were not buried tightly. More than a dozen were found along the way by the sentry.

Hearing the news, Tan Zhang's heart was cold. The thief soldiers really escaped from the direction of their defense. That is to say, the thief soldiers will not be blocked by any officers and soldiers along the way. They slipped away last night. It has been more than ten hours now. If they move forward lightly, they have at least 70 or 80 miles away. The army tossed around for a day and a night, and could not catch up with it with its current state. It had to quickly abandon the infantry and send more than 700 cavalry to quickly follow.

At the same time, Tan Zhang also quickly sent people to Heyang for the second time, informing Gu Da to use the thief soldiers to break through the direction, and asked Gu Da to send cavalry to cooperate in pursuit.