The heavens are happy

Chapter 270 Taizhou City Battle
Looking at the soldiers surrounding him in the dark, Zhang Shiyi couldn't help feeling a flash of despair in his heart.

He is no stranger to these people. He recognizes that the leader of the army is Zhang Wen, the confidant of the elder brother. Although his reputation in the army is not obvious, he is more like a hungry wolf lurking in the dark. Eliminate dissidents, and be able to mobilize Zhang Shicheng's personal guard battalion at critical times.

These soldiers are all Zhang Shicheng's personal soldiers and confidantes, and these people only obey Zhang Shicheng's military orders.

Saying that he killed himself would never be soft-hearted. Everyone looked at him with no emotion in his eyes, full of killing intent.

Zhang Shiyi only retreated step by step towards the city gate, his eyes fixed on the closed city gate, it was his only way out.

The remaining [-] or so people surrounded him and slowly retreated towards the gate of the city.

At this time, Zhao Lian's scolding came from above the city wall.

"Are you Zhang Shicheng's army? Why did you attack Taizhou City with heavy troops? You know it's a capital crime of treason!"

At this time, Zhang Wen, who was in the crowd, stepped forward, clapped his hands lightly, and said, "I am ordered by General Zhang Shicheng to pursue and suppress the rebellion. Master Zhao, if the defenders of Taizhou City are willing to help with the suppression of the rebellion, they can do so. If Master Zhao does not If you are willing to make a move, you can stand aside, after I wipe out the rebellion, I will leave on my own, and I will never commit any harm to Taizhou City!"

Hearing this, Zhao Lian scolded loudly: "Zhang Shiyi is a general appointed by the imperial court himself, how can he be punished as a rebel? Let me ask you, did he betray the imperial court or speak against the imperial court?"

Zhang Wen reined in the horse's head, and while using his feet to comfort the horse under his crotch, he said loudly: "Master Zhao, I am following the military order of General Zhang Shicheng, and I hope that Master Zhao will not hinder me from capturing the rebels. Zhang Shicheng is here. Here is the general's order. No matter how doubtful Mr. Zhao may be, you can go and ask General Zhang Shicheng!"

Zhao Lian snorted coldly and said: "Don't be crazy! If you really want to arrest the rebels, I will naturally not stop you, but I have something to say first. General Zhang Shiyi is my guest. He is now outside the city of Taizhou, but if anyone If a person dares to hurt him, I will kill him!"

Then Zhao Lian looked around and drank: "Left and right archers are ready, whoever dares to hurt General Zhang will be killed without mercy!"

As Zhao Lian's words fell, the crossbowmen on the city wall pulled up their bowstrings one after another, aiming at Zhang Wen and others under the city wall.

Although the people Zhang Wen brought were all Zhang Shicheng's confidantes, they were loyal, but after all, they were facing the imperial army at this time, and there was still some panic in the crowd.

Looking at the hesitant and flustered soldiers, Zhang Wen shouted in his heart that it was not good. If he didn't stop it, it would be too late when the morale was seriously injured.

Thinking of this, Zhang Wen slammed his fists and shouted: "Boys, follow me to fight for rebellion under the military order. If anyone dares to stop, kill!"

As the word "kill" fell, the surrounding soldiers raised their bows and arrows on their horses, aiming in the direction of Taizhou City.

All of a sudden, the two sides were at war with each other, and the atmosphere in the air froze for a moment.

Faced with such a situation, Zhao Lian on the city wall was also very anxious.

At this time Liu Chong leaned over to his side and said in a low voice: "My lord, they must be bluffing and dare not really attack Taizhou City. Unless Zhang Shicheng is about to rebel right now, my lord must not give in!"

Under the city wall, Chang Ying also took a step forward and walked to Zhang Wen, and said in a low voice: "I think Zhao Lian and others must be bluffing. He won't really protect Zhang Shiyi regardless of the safety of Taizhou city. Whoever is more ruthless and more patient, must not let it go."

All of a sudden, the atmosphere on the field fell into a stalemate. Everyone held their breath and did not dare to move. Only Zhang Shiyi, who was at the base of the city wall, was guarded by his soldiers, anxious like ants on a hot pot.

However, he didn't dare to act rashly, for fear of becoming a fuse because of his own carelessness.

All of a sudden, the night sky was filled with the sound of crackling torches and the snorting of dismounted horses.

At this moment, a horse in the crowd was suddenly frightened, let out a tragic neigh, and jumped high in place involuntarily.

The knight on the horseback was already tense, and his bow strings were tightly drawn to guard his whole body. At this time, he was frightened, let go of his fingers, and the feathered arrow in his hand flew out with a whistling sound, heading straight for the city wall.

As his feathered arrows shot out, there were two more swishing sounds from the crowd.

It turned out that several other soldiers on high alert, when they saw their companions shooting arrows, their subconscious reaction was to shoot along with them, which caused this situation.

This sudden turn of events surprised everyone present, and there was confusion for a while. The soldiers on the city wall were still hesitating whether to shoot arrows. Without Zhao Lian's order, they could only secretly look at Zhao Lian.

But what was even more shocking was that a feathered arrow flew straight towards Zhao Lian's face.

The arrow came so fast, how could Zhao Lian, a civil servant, dodge it in time.

He was so frightened that he stood there in a daze, and his heart was almost out of his wits.

Seeing that the situation was wrong, Liu Chong jumped forward, and at the same time pushed Zhao Lian fiercely with one hand, trying to push him away from the sword.

However, I don't know if it was an illusion, but in a trance, Liu Chong felt that when the arrow passed by him, there was a moment of shaking and turning, and it went out through the gap between his fingers.

"Bang"!
He turned his head in disbelief, only to see the feather arrow pierced straight into Zhao Lian's forehead, the blood was running down his cheeks, and he fell backwards straight.

Liu Chong hastily stepped forward to hug him, and then buried his body.

There was a commotion on the city wall, shouts and screams, filling the entire night sky.

"Master Zhao has been hit by an arrow!"

"Master Zhao has been hit by an arrow! Save someone!"

Under the city wall, Zhang Wen and Chang Ying looked at each other, and they both looked at each other in blank dismay. They didn't know whether Zhao Lian was really shot by random arrows, or it was a trick of the enemy army to force them to retreat.

However, at this moment, there was a new voice of shouting on the city wall.

"Master Zhao is dead!"

"The enemy killed Mr. Zhao!"

Hearing this, Zhang Wen and Chang Ying looked at each other, and they both saw the fear in each other's eyes, and they didn't have the slightest joy of shooting the enemy general.

This was not the victory they wanted at all. As old brothers who joined forces with Zhang Shicheng, they naturally knew that although Zhang Shicheng did not have much loyalty to the court, they definitely did not want to confront the court at this time.

But now, after killing Zhao Lian with his own hands, everything seemed to be a foregone conclusion, and they and Zhang Shicheng had nowhere to go.

Killing Zhao Lian is equivalent to directly announcing rebellion to the court, and there is no room for maneuver.

Liu Chong on the city wall shouted loudly: "Fire the arrows! Quickly release the arrows, kill them quickly, and avenge Master Zhao!"

After Zhao Lian's death, everyone was a little confused. At this time, they all woke up from a dream after hearing Liu Chong's words, and shot arrows desperately towards the city.

The commander died in battle. They were all weak in battle, so they might all be subject to military law, but it would be different if they could defeat the enemy and avenge Zhao Lian.

Therefore, each of these soldiers put all their energy into shooting fiercely at Zhang Wen and the others.

In an instant, a large number of soldiers fell beside Zhang Wen.

Not to be outdone, Zhang Wen ordered the cavalry to disperse and at the same time ordered them to shoot back with arrows.

He is also a decisive person, knowing that there is no way out at this time, if he can really attack Taizhou City, he can make up for it, otherwise Zhang Shicheng will not spare him lightly even if he goes back.

All of a sudden, there was a scuffle between the two sides, and there were the swishing sounds of crossbows and rockets everywhere, and the tragic hissing sound of arrows being hit from time to time, as well as the neighing sound of horses and the sound of gold and iron clashing.

At this time, Li Qi, who was sitting in the magistrate's yamen, suddenly stopped shaking his folding fan, and looked at the city of Taizhou suspiciously, with a solemn look in his eyes.

Although he is a civil servant, he is also a man who knows how to fight, and he knows that it is absolutely impossible to make such a big commotion if it is an ordinary fight.

With such shouts of killing, a fierce battle of this level must have been extremely fierce.

Li Qi suddenly cast a shadow over his heart, and had a bad premonition.

If it was just to meet Zhang Shiyi, it would be absolutely impossible for such a tragic fight to break out.

Could it be that Zhang Shicheng is really so bold that he dared to attack Taizhou City?
Thinking of this, he couldn't sit still anymore, he quickly got up and greeted his master, "Quick! Prepare your armor, master, I'm going to visit the city!"

He can no longer sit comfortably on the Diaoyutai, so he has to walk around to see what happened!
But at this time, as the battle continued, Zhang Wen found helplessly that what he brought was only some cavalry, and he could not exert his combat power at all in the siege battle at this time.

Although many enemy soldiers were injured during the battle for a long time, but I also suffered casualties, but Taizhou City remained motionless. If the fighting continued, I was afraid that the enemy army would come to help me, and I would be trapped to death here.

Therefore, he gritted his teeth and quickly made a decision to give up attacking Taizhou City, turned around and ordered everyone to retreat.

These people are cavalry, come and go freely.

After receiving the order, he quickly and easily withdrew from the battlefield and galloped towards the camp.

However, the defenders of Taizhou City did not dare to pursue them. If the gates of the city were opened wide, they would easily be turned around and attacked by the cavalry again.

Until the army of Zhang Wen and others left completely, at this time Li Qi finally led his people to the top of the city.

Looking from a distance, the city was full of flames, mixed with various shouts.

Li Qi stepped forward quickly and asked loudly, "Brother Zhao! Where is Brother Zhao? How is the battle going?"

However, he didn't see Zhao Lian's figure. On the contrary, Liu Chong came up, first saluted him respectfully, and then screamed fiercely: "Master Li! Master Zhao, he died for the country!"

"what!"

Li Qi only felt a humming in his head, and his feet felt a little weak, and then he saw Zhao Lian's body placed under the turret of the city gate. Before he could cover his body, the feathered arrow on his forehead was shining brightly between his eyebrows.

Li Qi only felt dizzy for a while, but it wasn't that he felt sorry for Zhao Lian; he was so sad because of the deep love between the two.

It's just that Zhao Lian died like this, and he, Li Qi, would have to give an explanation to the court no matter what, and there was no room for maneuver with Zhang Shicheng. The reason for the great pressure.

Li Qi took a deep breath, clenched his fists, and shouted loudly: "Master! Send someone to report to the imperial court, and send spies to the four directions to closely monitor Zhang Shicheng's movements, call people from outside the city to help defend the city, and quickly issue a safety notice to the whole city. , the yamen of the ignorant prefecture is not allowed to come and go casually!"

After all, Li Qi had experienced ups and downs in the officialdom, after the initial panic, he finally came back to his senses, calmed down and began to give orders quickly, the whole city of Taizhou suddenly moved.

At this time, there were groans and shouts from under the city wall.

Li Qi was stunned for a moment, "What's going on? Did our people leave the city? Or did the other side leave so many wounded?"

Liu Chong hurriedly said: "It's because Zhang Shiyi was trapped under the city wall before entering the city in time, and he was ignored during the battle just now. I don't know how he is doing now?"

Li Qi pondered for a while and said: "At this time, the city is in a state of turmoil, and it is difficult to open the city gate. In this way, you choose one or two strong men to go down in a hanging basket and see what's going on underneath."

As a strong city, Taizhou City not only has all kinds of defensive equipment on the top of the city, but also hanging blue hooks are indispensable, so the soldiers quickly brought over a big hanging blue.

Liu Chong cupped his hands and said, "My lord, I know Zhang Shiyi, why don't you let me go down and have a look!"

Li Qi nodded and said: "Proceed carefully to prevent the enemy from cheating!"

"Yes!"

When Liu Chong came to the city, he saw that Zhang Shiyi's soldiers were all lying on the ground, many of them were wounded, and some of them were still moaning.

Liu Chong jumped down from the hanging basket, and then shouted: "General Zhang, General Zhang!"

However, no one responded.

At this moment, a wounded soldier lying on the ground weakly stretched out his finger and pointed to the direction behind him.

Liu Chong walked forward quickly and pulled away a corpse in front of him, only to see Zhang Shiyi lying on the ground with his feet up in the air and a feathered arrow stuck in his chest.

The feathered arrow was inserted straight into his chest, leaving only the tail of the arrow exposed.

However, the first moment Liu Chong saw it, he felt a sense of familiarity in a trance, as if there were inexplicable similarities between this arrow and the one that killed Zhao Lian.

Immediately she shook her head again, there were people who were good at archery among the opponents, since they were able to make a sneak attack with a sudden cold arrow, it would not be too difficult to shoot Zhang Shiyi to death.

He quickly came to Zhang Shiyi, checked first, and found that there was still a weak pulse beating.

Liu Chong just wanted to lift Zhang Shiyi, but Zhang Shiyi suddenly opened his eyes, his bloody hands tightly grasped Liu Chong's arm, and blood kept gushing out of his throat.

"General Zhang, General Zhang, do you have anything to say?"

Zhang Shiyi's eyes were round and full of hatred. He stared at Liu Chong, as if he wanted to carve him into his bones and bring him to the underworld.

Then he let go of his hand unwillingly, and fell to the ground. At the last moment of his life, all he had was hatred for Liu Chong. If it wasn't for Liu Chong, maybe he wouldn't have fallen to such a point at this time.

(End of this chapter)