April, the fifth year of Yongjia.

Yuzhou, Liang State, Ku County, Ningping City.

The officials and soldiers of the Central Army of the Great Jin Xingtai were rested and recuperated after arriving in Ningping City under the leadership of the Taiwei Wang Yan and the King of Xiangyang Sima Fan.

Taking this opportunity, the troops in Xingtai plundered the people in the city and replenished the already scarce supplies.

The military commander led by the Taiwei Wang Yan and the Xiangyang King Sima Fan could not stop this openly plundering the people.

In other words, Wang Yan, Sima Fan and others had no intention of stopping this approach.

In just one day, the city of Ningping, which was originally a little crowded, was plundered. Almost all the people in the city fled. In the city of Ningping, which was already small, there were almost no ordinary people. There were all Taiwanese officials and soldiers everywhere.

Under such circumstances, the plan to repair the Taiwei Wang Yan's original plan for a day and then continue to speed up the journey to Xuzhou Donghai Kingdom could not be implemented, because almost all the officials and soldiers in the Taiwan Strait refused to continue moving forward.

In addition, when encountering the rainy weather at the turn of spring and summer, Wang Yan and others could only announce that they would have to rest for one or two more days in Ningping City.

At this time, the Taiwei Wang Yan and Xiangyang King Sima Fan and others already knew that there was a popular saying among the Xingtai army, that is, the Xingtai army would continue to go south to Jiangdong after arriving in the Donghai Kingdom of Xuzhou.

The soldiers of the central army, who were almost all northerners, were all depressed. In addition, although the Taiwei Wang Yan and Xiangyang King Sima Fan and others were very prestigious among the scholars, they were often arrogant in front of the central army. Their prestige among the soldiers was far inferior to the dead Donghai King Sima Yue.

In addition, Wang Yan and others still had no way to raise shortage of food and grass at this time, and in the past marches, they had almost no ability to coordinate the marching of hundreds of thousands of complex troops, and there were many chaotic chaos.

All these unfavorable situations gathered together. It would be fine if there were no external threats, but as long as a powerful threat suddenly came, all these unfavorable factors would become the initiators to destroy the troops in Xingtai.

After two consecutive days of rain fell, the sky finally cleared.

Under the service of several servants and servants, Wang Yan, the Grand Marshal of the Great Jin Dynasty, had just gotten up. After using a simple dozen breakfasts, he drank another spicy and rich soup.

"Go and tell the King of Xiangyang, and just say that after a while, we will go to the city office to discuss military affairs." Wang Yan said to his slave, while using soup.

The slave took the order and took a break and walked out in a few steps. However, just as he reached the door, he didn't even take a step out of the door. He was rushed in outside the door and screamed, and fell to the ground with his back.

"Ouch!" The slave cried out, covering his butt. Just now, he almost smashed his butt.

When Wang Yan heard that the slaves were so incomplete, he felt anger. The servants in his family could never be so rude. He looked up and wanted to scold the two who collided, but only saw a terrified face.

"Taiwei, the captains are chasing us. There are tens of thousands of people and horses all over the mountains and fields, and they can't count them."

The person who spoke was a military general. The collision just now did not hurt the powerful warrior at all, or his mind was no longer on this.

Seeing this general so frightened, Wang Yan was also very panicked.

"Hulu? Where is it?" Wang Yan asked immediately.

This military general is Li Chang, the former general of Xingtai. He is one of the few generals who have both prestige and obey Wang Yan's command, so Wang Yan has always been a new leader in him.

"Report to the Taiwei, just west of Ningping City, there are already many barbarian cavalry who have crossed the Shahe River." Li Chang, the former general of the army, said anxiously.

Shahe is a river facing the west of Ningping City. As long as you cross this river, you will reach the city of Ningping City.

"How many thieves are there?"

Wang Yan secretly complained in his heart. Now that the soldiers in Xingtai are distorted, if they encounter large groups of barbarian cavalry again, it will be a disaster.

Under the current circumstances, Wang Yan was not willing to pray in his heart. These barbarians were all passing by and plundering. Never come specifically to target the army in Xingtai.

However, the words of the former army governor Li Chang quickly shattered the fantasy of the Taiwei Wang Yan.

"Taiwei, there are at least 20,000 or 30,000 thieves. You can't see the situation in Hexi through the Shahe River, but it's definitely not thousands of thieves who are covered with the wilderness of Hexi."

"Also, these Hu cavalry are very vicious. After crossing the Shahe River, they have chased all the soldiers nearby, and defeated a battalion of soldiers outside the city."

When Wang Yan heard this, he felt a grief in his heart.

It's broken, it's bad. The Taichung Army was originally unstable. Now that we have encountered so many aggressive Hu cavalry, we are afraid that we will be even more uncontrollable.

Nowadays, the central army wants food but no reinforcements. It seems that there are enemies everywhere. Not to mention ordinary soldiers, even the Taiwei Wang Yan is full of despair and fear.

"Hurry, change my clothes, I'm going to check it out in person."

With Wang Yan's order, the servants around him immediately rushed to get the armor and uniforms.

On weekdays, Wang Yan rarely wears military uniforms and armors that symbolize vulgar martial artists, so for a while, these unfamiliar servants were in a mess with each other, and finally, with the help of Li Chang, the former military governor, put on Wang Yan.

After the Taiwei Wang Yan put on his armor, he thought about it and ordered the servant to take the regular clothes with wide clothes and put them outside the armor.

Under the cover of his wide and elegant regular clothes, the armor that Wang Yan was wearing inside was not visible from the outside.

Seeing the former army governor Li Chang next to him, Wang Yan's face turned slightly red and he said.

"If the soldiers in the army see me wearing armor, they will definitely think that the situation is in crisis, and they are afraid that rumors will be spread, which will not be conducive to the stability of the army."

After hearing this, Li Chang immediately realized it and felt moved.

When the Grand Marshal Wang Yan, accompanied by Li Chang, rushed to the head of Ningping City in panic.

Wang Yan discovered that on the top of the city, the royal family kings led by King Sima Fan of Xiangyang had also arrived.

Everyone came to the city head at the same time. Wang Yan knew that these royal kings must have known about the attack of the Hulu.

There was no greeting or conversation, because Wang Yan came to the city and, with his condescending advantage, he had already seen the situation outside the city.

Although the 100,000 troops in Xingtai have arrived in Ningping City to station, the small Ningping City cannot accommodate so many soldiers and officials.

Moreover, the problems of drinking water, making fires and cooking for 100,000 people are major issues that need to be solved every day, so the officials and some soldiers of the Taiwan Strait are stationed in Ningping City, while the rest of the soldiers are stationed in their own camps and outside Ningping City.

Wang Yan, who had just climbed to Ningping City, looked out and the hordes of middle-aged soldiers rushed into Ningping City like flocks of sheep chased by wolves.

A large number of military tents, armor, utensils and other items were abandoned in the camp outside the city.

Behind these panicked soldiers, there were only a few hundred scattered Hu cavalry, and these Hu cavalry were all concerned about looting treasures and belongings abandoned by the central army in the camp, and not many people were really going to chase and kill them.

"Dare you, thief!"

Seeing that only hundreds of barbarian cavalrymen were scared to death by tens of thousands of soldiers outside the city and abandoned the camp and fled into the city. The Grand Marshal Wang Yan immediately scolded him angrily.

At this time, more generals and officials had arrived on the city.

After reprimanding Wang Yan, the Grand Marshal Wang Yan, looked around the generals around and spoke.

"There are only a few hundred thieves. Which general dares to go out of the city to fight back?"

When the generals and officials present heard the inquiry from the Grand Marshal Wang Yan, they all subconsciously shrank their necks.

At the same time, many generals and officials cursed the Taiwei Wang Yan in their hearts. In the current situation, the gates entering and leaving the city have been blocked by soldiers pouring in from outside. Not to mention the counterattack from leaving the city, it is a blessing not to have trampled and injured among the soldiers pouring into Ningping City.

Moreover, most of the central army soldiers stationed outside the city were lower-level soldiers and soldiers of the sidelines. The officers and generals on the top of the city were all senior generals of the central army. It was impossible to think about these noble generals to fight for some soldiers with low status.

After asking, the generals around him were all silent, which made Wang Yan angry.

He was not angry that these generals and officials were afraid of the enemy, or that they were all self-protection and refused to go to war.

The real anger of the Taiwei Wang Yan was that in the face of his own inquiries, not only did no one actively accept the orders, but even no one had expressed different opinions. In Wang Yan's opinion, the result of this silence was that he did not attach importance to his authority.

However, in this case, Wang Yan still had to rely on these people to defend himself, which was impossible for a while.

Just when Wang Yan wanted to continue saying something to exchange for his face, he suddenly heard a scream near the city gate outside the city and screamed.

Wang Yan followed the direction of the sound and looked out from the city wall.

I saw that outside the gate of Ningping City, among the crowded soldiers, as more and more soldiers were crowded, the already narrow suspension bridge could not carry many people at all. Many soldiers were squeezed out of the moat while pushing each other.

There were also many soldiers who were squeezed to the ground by the crowd behind them before they even stepped on the suspension bridge of the moat, and then they were trampled to death by the crowds of people.

Without officers and generals maintaining order, these soldiers assigned to the city have completely lost order.

Without an enemy attacking, the number of people trampling on each other and trampling on each other has instantly exceeded the number of people killed by Hu Qi.

Seeing this situation, many generals and officials on the top of the city ran to the city wall at the city gate, and they all tried their best to shout and command the soldiers outside the city, trying to restore order.

However, under the surging crowds, the voices of these officers were soon drowned by the screams and roars in the crowd.

After taking a look at the situation at the city gate, the Grand Marshal Wang Yan withdrew his gaze.

Because, at this time, another scene was much more attractive than the situation where some lowly soldiers died.

To the west of Ning Ping City, the west bank of the Sha River.

As the sounds came like thunder, Wang Yan on Ningping City looked up and saw that on the west bank of the Shahe River, tens of thousands of cavalrymen were carrying various flags. Under the morning sun, they were as if they were covered with a layer of golden coat. The power of the cavalry tide was so far away, but they still kept hitting Wang Yan's heart.

"These barbarians have found a suitable place to cross the river."

At this time, Li Chang, the former army governor next to Taiwei Wang Yan, whispered, as if he was explaining the reasons for the Hulu's actions to Taiwei Wang Yan.

After hearing the words of the former army governor Li Chang, the Grand Marshal Wang Yan still did not take back his gaze from the Hu cavalry in the distance.

"Li Chang, are these barbarians under the thief chief?" Wang Yan's tone was full of uneasiness.

"Report to the Taiwei, the banners of these Hu barbarians are all the banners of Hu Han in Bingzhou. The villain just saw some clear banners from afar, all of which were Jie Hu Shile's troops, and did not see the banners of other Hu Han thief chiefs. It should be just Shile."

In Li Chang's words, there seems to be a kind of gratitude for only meeting Shi Le's one. After all, although the other Wang Mi, Zhao Gu, Liu Ling and other troops may not be very strong in combat, the number of people is no less than Shi Le. If several thief chiefs come together, it may be a desperate situation.

However, after hearing Li Chang's words, the Taiwei Wang Yan was confused.

"It's really strange."

Hearing the Taiwei Wang Yan's whisper, the former army governor Li Chang was not sure.

Now all the Hulu cavalry pursuing are Shile's troops. What's so strange about this? These Hulu thieves often do not act together in order to plunder the wealth and consignment population of the prefectures and counties, because in that case, not only will the capital population of the plunder be much smaller, but there will also be competition among the various departments, making it difficult to maintain their fragile alliances.

"Taiwei, what strange thing is?" Li Chang asked with courage.

"Why."
To be continued...