Chapter 263 The house leaked and it rained all night

When Li Ping fell into a deep sleep beside the white water, the lights in Yuezhou City, 200 miles away, were still brightly lit.

The whole city continues to be busy like a big construction site.

There were shouts and screams everywhere, a constant flow of soldiers, civilians, and even women and children, houses that were being demolished to remove wooden beams, door panels, bricks and tiles, countless hills of special supplies for city defense, etc. that were being piled up and down the city wall.

This profoundly shows that extremely urgent preparations are being made to defend the city.

Since the fleet near Junshan last night was suddenly attacked by small boats and burned two valuable warships, and this morning an army of thousands of people under the banner of Zhang Xianzhong and including many cavalry appeared directly in the mountains outside the city.

After that, the clouds of war began to hang over this place.

Later, the interrogation of several prisoners captured by the Yanming Naval Battalion, who were also native Dongting Lake fishermen, revealed that Zhang Xianzhong had assembled an army of 100,000 to deal with Li Ping. The grim situation was even more like a Damoca hanging above his head.

Like the Sword of Lys, the rulers of the city began to tremble with fear.

At this time, they were completely ignorant of the outcome of the battle by the white water 200 miles away, and their enemies were equally ignorant.

This is war! The war of this era.

What's even more terrible is that the captured Dongting Lake indigenous fishermen affirmed that what followed their fleet was an infantry army of less than a thousand men, and there was no cavalry except for a few horses.

In other words, the troops that appeared in the mountains to the east of Yuezhou City were most likely other troops sent by Zhang Xianzhong to bypass overland, and the actual strength of the troops could not be determined, but it was definitely only a lot more.

The number of Zhang Xianzhong's killing moves and the magnitude of his plans are mind-boggling.

In addition to worrying about Li Ping's inevitable defeat, the rulers of Yuezhou also worried that they would also be wiped out.

But no one wanted to evacuate Yuezhou.

They knew that once Yuezhou was abandoned, Li Ping, whose escape route was cut off, would no longer have the possibility of escaping.

So this was destined to be a sleepless night.

However, when a few eager uninvited guests broke into the brightly lit hall and hall of a large house in the city, the people sitting inside still expressed great surprise.

"Baolai, calm down. Don't be so irritable! When you are irritable, the people below will become even more confused." Zhao Lanyue, who continued to sit knitting sweaters, frowned and glanced behind Song Baolai at the same time.

At this time, several busy figures outside the house were attracted to stop and looked here solemnly and curiously.

But at present, the most powerful person in Yuezhou, the person in charge of city defense, and the great builder Song Baolai, who has been busy all day, did not pay attention to these at all. He just stared at the few women in the hall and said in surprise: "You guys

Are you actually knitting a sweater?”

"What are you doing if you don't knit sweaters? Do you want us women to help you make city defense equipment and arrange city defense? If we weren't worried that you wouldn't be able to sustain the situation, we would have gone to bed early." Zhao Lanyue said rudely.

"Do you still want to sleep?" Song Baolai, whose eyes were red, almost jumped up.

"It's time to eat, it's time to sleep, the sky won't fall. Look at your potential!" Zhao Lanyue glanced at Qian Dongzi, who was following Song Baolai with an embarrassed look on his face.

Qian Dongzi, Li Ping's former soldier, is currently the training director of the naval camp.

After the enemy troops were discovered in the east of the city this morning, the naval battalion was stationed at the edge of Yuezhou City. Qian Dongzi and about half of the naval battalion officers and soldiers also entered the city to serve as infantry and were directly commanded by Song Baolai.

In other words, Qian Dongzi is currently the highest-ranking officer in the city besides Shi Lei, and the officer they can trust most. He has a heavy responsibility and needs to be with the army now.

In order to ensure the stability of power in Yuezhou after he left, Li Ping left behind not many regular infantry troops, only two battalions, and these two battalions did not have superior military commanders, and their strength was much weaker than Song Baolai's support battalion.

"Baolai, what happened?" Gao Lei on the side decided to interrupt the exchange between Zhao Lanyue and Song Baolai. Her face was full of uneasiness and anxiety, and she could no longer hold her breath.

Song Baolai glanced at Zhao Lanyue faintly, then sat down on an empty chair and said in a hoarse voice in frustration: "I just received news that Zuo Liangyu's army in Linxiang County abandoned the city in the afternoon? Zhang Xianzhong's

The army has entered Linxiang County."

"What?" Yang Xiuqin, who was knitting with Zhao Lanyue and Gao Lei, dropped the sweater needle in her hand to the ground in shock.

Even if Yang Xiuqin doesn't understand military affairs, she still knows what this means.

Linxiang County is about 60 miles northeast of Yuezhou, which is actually to the north of Yuezhou. After Li Ping captured Yuezhou, it was quickly abandoned by Zhang Xianzhong's army, and then occupied by Zuo Liangyu's army.

Now, Zhang Xianzhong's army is attacking there again, which shows that the enemy is cutting off their land route of retreat.

"How do you know they ran away? I remember our reconnaissance didn't go that far. We don't have the ability... By the way, do you just listen to the wind or the rain? Don't just listen to those random scaremongerings or even

It may be a rumor spread intentionally by the enemy, which will disrupt the morale of the army!" Zhao Lanyue said in surprise, her reaction was very fast.

Gao Lei, who had just lowered his head in depression, raised his head again when he heard this. It was obvious that he suddenly realized that this was an era where unreasonable rumors were flying all over the sky.

But Song Baolai's next words made Gao Lei's entire face darken, completely darken.

"Zhang Kuang sent us an urgent message from his cronies. Shi Ming ignored Zuo Liangyu's order to move closer to Wuchang. Instead, he sent the army to the sudden increase in banditry on the grounds that Governor Lu Daqi ordered him to ensure the safety of South Zhili.

Anqing Prefecture's Huaining County and Tongcheng County were mobilized, and Zuo Liangyu was furious.

Zhang Kuang's cronies who delivered the news to us encountered Zuo Liangyu's army who was panicking and retreating northward on the way there, and learned that as soon as Zhang Xianzhong's army appeared near Linxiang County, Zuo Liangyu's army abandoned the city and Linxiang was attacked.

Xiangxian City must be occupied now, there will be no difference."

"Shi Ming, what does this mean?" Zhao Lanyue was also shocked.

As for Zuo Liangyu's army running away, she was not that surprised. Zuo Liangyu's 100,000-strong army had just been defeated by Zhang Xianzhong's Sun Kewang last month. It was not unusual to flee like a frightened bird, and it was also expected by them.

Otherwise, they wouldn't be as nervous as they are now.

Song Baolai said depressedly: "How do I know? But no matter what it means, Zuo Liangyu will not care about us for sure. His army just suffered heavy losses, and he was already afraid of Zhang Xianzhong like a tiger. Now that he has run away, he will never again."

Maybe he’s back!”

In disbelief, Zhao Lanyue looked at Qian Dongzi, who was still standing in the middle of the hall. Qian Dongzi nodded helplessly and said, "The person sent by Zhang Tuiguan is an acquaintance, and Deputy Director Shi has also inquired in person, and the information is confirmed.

"

Zhang Kuang was embarrassed for a time after Yuan Jixian was dismissed, but soon after Huang Shu took office, he was appointed as the promotion official of Hanyang Prefecture and the regent of affairs of the Prefecture and Mianyang Prefecture. This was also the appointment Zhang Kuang had received in history.

However, there are some deviations, that is, Huang Shu's work representation for Zhang Kuang in the history of time and space did not include Mianyang Prefecture affairs.

Hearing what Qian Dongzi said, Zhao Lanyue sighed involuntarily, and her expression became ugly.

No matter how mentally prepared you are, it’s still hard to accept that someone has taken advantage of you.

Moreover, Shi Ming's incident was indeed surprising, which almost meant that they could no longer have any illusions about the only possible support for Zuo Liangyu.

But just for a moment, Zhao Lanyue put away her decadent expression and said firmly: "So what? Just go ahead and keep this Yuezhou City safe. Zhang Xianzhong can't do anything to Li Ping, Zuo Liang

Yu Ye can't do anything about Li Ping. I have confidence in Li Ping. We don't need to worry in vain."

Gao Lei was shocked when she heard this. As a former junior executive, she certainly understood the importance of stabilizing people's hearts.

So she immediately followed up and said: "Yes! So what? Aren't we mentally prepared for what happened in Linxiang County? It's not a surprise. And we never expected Zuo Liangyu to come to help us. We

You can't mess up your position. Bora, you have to hold firm, and we all have to hold firm."

But Song Baolai still continued to sigh. He obviously could not accept all this and could not face it calmly.

Maybe he was under too much pressure.

Just when she was about to say something more, Zhao Lanyue spoke first and said: "Drink some tea to moisten your throat and then go! Go sleep for a while. We are going to sleep too. Remember, you must sleep tonight, don't exhaust yourself.

Don't let the people below see that you don't have confidence."

Song Baolai was obviously stunned and looked at Zhao Lanyue in disbelief.

But Zhao Lanyue added seriously: "If you didn't come here in such a hurry, we could stay up with you for a while longer. But now, we have to sleep, even if we can't sleep, we have to sleep."

Seeing that Zhao Lanyue didn't look like he was joking at all, Song Baolai reluctantly twisted on the chair a few more times, and finally stopped talking.

After shaking his head with a wry smile, Song Baolai nodded resignedly and said, "Okay! Then, I'll go."

After Song Baolai and Yang Xiuqin left, only Zhao Lanyue and Gao Lei were left in the hall. Zhao Lanyue asked Gao Lei with a gloomy face: "I remember that Yang Ming and Yang Yukun are still in Wuchang?"

"Yes, what's wrong?" Gao Lei affirmed a little baffled.

"Then why didn't he send such important news to Shi Ming? Instead, he asked Zhang Kuang in Hanyang to send us the news first?" Zhao Lanyue's face became even more gloomy.

Gao Lei was startled, and her expression suddenly changed.

"Go to sleep! You know this and I know it, so it's better not to let everyone know." Zhao Lanyue sighed helplessly.

It's a pity that sometimes God doesn't always do what we want.

Zhao Lanyue and Gao Lei had just laid down, but had to get up immediately. They even left their residences and stood on the city wall to look at the vast South Lake, which had only one waterway to the south of the city and was connected to Dongting Lake in the west.

At this time, the Nanjin Port, the most important and largest natural haven in the South Lake, was blazing into the sky, and the flames produced by the burning of countless large and small ships reflected the red light for dozens of miles around.

Although Yan Ming's battle fleet is not here to prevent being trapped in Nanhu, which has only one small exit, and to ensure the safety of the water outside Yuezhou, Nanjin Port is the gathering place for all their non-combat ships, and it is also where they have always been.

An important guarantee for the evacuation of all personnel by waterway.

The faces of Zhao Lanyue and Gao Lei also became particularly gloomy in the firelight.

But where there is yin, there is yang. Zhang Xianzhong's general Hun Tianlong, who was hiding in a dark place and watching the super bonfire, was in a good mood, with a hint of a sinister smile on his lips.

Hun Tianlong was Zhang Xianzhong's top general who stayed behind in Yuezhou. He managed to escape after being attacked by Li Ping.

Now, after returning from the battle, he not only succeeded in burning all the transport ships of the Yuezhou army, but also found that the officers and soldiers in the city did not dare to come out to put out the fire. This gave him the hope of killing the entire army in the city and avenging their shame.

In the original history, Hun Tianlong also defended Yuezhou. He went out of the city to resist the attack of Zuo Liangyu's general Ma Shixiu by using both land and water. However, he was surrounded by Ma Shixiu's navy and was defeated. He lost four thousand people.

He broke out of the city and fled to Changsha.

Later, in December of the same year, Zhang Xianzhong sent Ai Nengqi to lead his army northward and defeated the official army before retaking Yuezhou.

In this time and space, Hun Tianlong still defends and loses Yuezhou.
To be continued...