Chapter 124:

Chapter 124:

In the south of Jiankang, Liyang is only a few hundred kilometers away from the capital.

Not long ago, when the rebels in Xuancheng tried to attack Jiankang for the first time, Gao Qiao personally rushed from Jiankang to attack the rebels here, and successfully sniped them, causing the rebels to retreat.

But not long after that short-lived victory, this place was once again caught in a battle.

One side is still the imperial army, and the other side is still the rebel army from Xuancheng.

But unlike the previous time, this time, the rebel army also had a power of Tianshijiao.

This battle in Liyang has entered its fifth day.

The imperial army repelled the enemy's attack time and time again. However, the rebels who were united by the Xuancheng Army and the Celestial Master disciples seemed to have an endless stream of locust borers that climbed up from the depths of the earth, spreading all over the mountains and plains. Inexhaustible fighting, inexhaustible destruction, one wave back, another wave.

Especially the pioneer team of thousands of people composed of disciples of the Tianshijiao, all faces stiff, their eyes are blood red, and their eyes are flashing with beast-like excited strange eyes, holding swords in their hands, rushing up, seeing people. just chop.

Nothing can stop them. These people don't seem to be human, but a large group of zombies with only life and no soul. Unless they were dead, or their legs and feet were cut off, even if their arms were cut off and the blood flowed like a stream, they would not stop them from rushing forward while dragging their broken hands while stepping on the bodies of their companions.

One person fell, and more people rushed up immediately behind.

In a field battle in order to compete for favorable terrain, Li Xie saw with his own eyes a disciple of the Heavenly Master who had his head cut off with a knife, and actually stood up with the headless body with neck and shoulders flush. He rushed straight ahead seven or eight paces before he dashed down, and the sword was still tightly held in his hand.

In this situation, even when he saw it, he felt horrified.

Liyang is the last pass for Jiankang to the south. If Liyang is lost, it will be like opening a door to Jiankang for the rebels. In Jiankang, apart from the Stone City that Gao Qiao has managed for many years and its not very tall city wall, there is no longer any barrier worth mentioning.

Everyone knows the importance of Liyang. In addition, from the beginning to the end of each battle, Gao Qiao will show up to command the battle, and even disregard the persuasion of his subordinates, he will personally wear armor and fight the enemy. Inspired by him, whether it was the Guangling Army or the middle army left behind to defend the city, at this point, they were all red-eyed, and no one dared to retreat.

It was because of this twisted morale that after a few days, the imperial army not only regained the previously lost positions, but also pushed the rebels back fifty miles.

However, before the top and bottom had time to take a breath, when the fierce battle entered the seventh day, Gao Qiao had to make the decision to shrink his position, retreat to the city, and split his troops back to Jiankang.

Because he has no other choice.

He received the latest battle report.

Wangjiang County was breached a few days ago. The Jingzhou rebels were divided into two groups. One part took the land route along the river and captured the counties along the way. Hurry up, heading straight for Jiankang.

This rebel army going east along the waterway will arrive in a few days.

The joy of victory vanished in an instant.

When Gao Qiao arranged who should stay behind to guard Liyang, the council hall was silent for a while.

Everyone knows that after the division of troops to Jiankang, with the number of people who can't compete with the opponent, relying on this city gate, trying to resist the countless insane rebels outside for a long time, the pressure is extremely high .

This is not simply a question of death or life. But if the city is broken, he will die in battle. If he is not good, he will most likely have to bear the charge of being incompetent and misleading the country, and will be reviled by others.

No one can bear this crime.

"If Gao Xianggong believes in me, I am willing to lead the army and stick to this city!"

In the silence, Li Xie slowly stepped out of the queue and said with a salute.

Gao Qiao stared at him, a hint of relief slowly appeared in those deeply sunken eyes.

He got up from the back of his seat, walked to Li Xie himself, helped him up, and said, "I will go back to the capital, I will fight against the Jingzhou soldiers with all my strength, and strive to protect Jiankang. In front of the Jingzhou soldiers, keep this door closed, you are the first in this battle!"

"Master, rest assured! All officers and soldiers are as strong as iron! Without the order of the master, even if the blood splatters three feet, you will not take a step back!"

Li Xie said word by word.

…

Gao Qiao sent two Zhonglang generals who voluntarily asked to stay in Jiankang that day to defend the city with Li Xie. After leaving the defenders, he led the remaining troops overnight and rushed back to Jiankang.

The Stone City in Jiankang West was built in the former dynasty and was originally a fortress used to protect Jiankang. Before the Northern Expedition that year, Gao Qiao began to operate again, not only the door is deep, but the city wall is even more impregnable, known as the first fortress in Jiangdong.

Xu Mi has been in the dynasty for many years, and she will not be unaware of the solidity of Stone City. After arriving, Gao Qiao expected that he would bypass Stone City. The most likely route is to take the Jiangling and Fuzhoushan area, and set up an ambush there in advance.

Sure enough, he was expected.

On that night, the rebels took advantage of the darkness to land on a boat on the river bank dozens of miles away from Stone City, and attacked Jiankang in a roundabout way.

It was originally an expected surprise attack, but I didn't expect to encounter an ambush when passing through a low-lying mountain pass near Jiangling. For a time, rockets on both sides of the hills were like locusts, and the rock was rolling. The rebels were caught off guard and trampled on each other in order to avoid the attack on the mountain road.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Xu Mi hurriedly withdrew the troops and retreated, leaving behind the dead and wounded soldiers and the armor and luggage on the ground, and was chased and killed by the imperial army all the way. In the wild field of Jiangcheng County to the northwest, using the flat terrain to regroup, this is considered a dodgy escape.

This time, the reason why he divided the army by land and water, he personally brought the army by water, and couldn't wait to go to Jiankang first, the reason was all because of Li Mu.

He has always had the idea of ​​creating a great cause. But I didn't expect that the previous northern expedition, not only failed to achieve the purpose of excluding Gao Qiao, but also made him lose a foothold in the imperial court.

Just when he was hesitating about whether to continue the rebellion or not, when he was hesitant to do so, the mighty Heavenly Teacher Rebellion that started in Wu and then spread quickly gave him a feeling of being helped by God. Without hesitation, I decided to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to start a career.

But looking at the Southern Dynasty, he was still afraid of one person.

That person is Li Mu.

He knew that Li Mu was a formidable opponent.

Once he returns to the Southern Dynasties, and if he has not controlled the situation by then, he will most likely encounter difficulties. If he is not careful, he may even capsize.

So from the beginning, he planned to take Li Mu's mother into his hands, and quietly sent someone to sneak into Jingkou. He didn't expect that Li Mu lived in the manor, and the door was strictly guarded, and there was no chance to start. So he simply instructed those Jiangyang water thieves to openly attack Jingkou.

He originally thought that this should be able to happen.

But the news that came in the end disappointed him.

What's even worse is that he also got the news that Li Mu, as he expected, has already sent his army to the south.

Therefore, he needs to lay down Jiankang as soon as possible.

In his plan, although Jiankang has no danger to defend, as long as he can capture Jiankang before Li Mu returns, and then capture Jingkou and firmly control Guanglingdu, it means that starting from the upper reaches of Jingzhou, until The lower reaches of Jiangdong, the entire river region, and the commerce and water transportation that accounted for a large proportion of the imperial court's state coffers by relying on the river, all fell into his hands.

He grabbed the lifeline of the Southern Dynasty, and then refused Li Mu to Jiangbei, making him unable to cross the river south. In this way, in the future, he can rely on this great river to fight against Li Mu and the imperial court who retreated to the southeast corner, and plan the rest.

This is why he personally led a surprise attack on Jiankang.

Since he took advantage of the opportunity of Tianshijiao to openly rebelled, everything went smoothly.

Compared with the embarrassment that Gao Qiao was struggling to cope with, he could be said to have achieved everything he wanted, and he was a little smug at first.

Unexpectedly, the first battle after landing, was hit by Gao Qiao's ambush, and the defeat was so embarrassing.

Hate and annoyed, Xu Mi rested for two days in Jiangcheng County, and learned of new news that the army led by Yang Xuan was invincible all the way. Without even the slightest resistance, he directly opened the city gate and surrendered.

The army had already reached the Dangtu area, and it was only three or four days' journey away from Jiankang.

Xu Mi was overjoyed, sent the news, and motivated the soldiers with a reward, and then dispatched troops to attack Jiankang again.

After Gao Qiao won the first battle, he knew that Xu Mi would make a comeback, and sent Jiang Cheng's command Cui Gao to guard the Xiling in the north of Jiankang, Shang Gang, the prefect of Lujiang, to guard the Qingxi in the east, and the officers and soldiers of Stone City to guard the west gate. south of Yunlongmen.

After three days of **** battle, Cui Gao and Shang Gang were killed one after another, and Xiling and Qingxi fell into the hands of Xu Mi.

Xu Mi's morale was boosted, and he took advantage of the victory to push to the Yunlong Gate. Gao Qiao personally led the battle. During the battle, Xu Mi was shot in the chest by an arrow and fell to the ground. People nearby thought he was shot dead at first, so they panicked and raised him. After fleeing in a hurry, Gao Qiao seized the opportunity to counterattack, forcing the rebels to retreat for dozens of miles, and finally took back the two places of Xiling and Qingxi.

That arrow was only blocked by the goggles, and it only cracked the armor and penetrated an inch into the flesh, and there was no serious problem.

Although he had a false alarm and escaped from death, Xu Mi had never imagined that Jiankang, who he thought could be easily won, would be so difficult to beat. Not only did he almost die at the hands of Gao Qiao, but his soldiers also suffered heavy casualties and were exhausted. Thinking back to the past, he wanted to send the people of nearby counties to serve as his army soldiers, and the people complained and fled. For a while, he didn't want to fight again, so he ordered the station to rest and waited anxiously for Yang Xuan's arrival.

Although the rebels were repelled for the second time, Jiankang was once again given a chance to breathe, but in this battle, the imperial army also suffered heavy losses. Not only ordinary soldiers, but even generals above the middle level also suffered dozens of casualties, which was shocking.

Regardless of fatigue, Gao Qiao was visiting the wounded soldiers in the temporarily erected camp outside the Yunlong Gate in Taicheng. Outside the Yuanmen, a blood-stained messenger suddenly rushed in, bringing terrible news.

Piling was lost.

Zhengzhen general Zhong Ming, who was in charge of defending Piling, was born in a noble family. He fought with Gao Yun for many years. He used to be stationed in Guangling.

He consciously has deep seniority, and in terms of seniority, he can call Gao Yun brothers and sisters, and he is also Gao Yin's uncle, bullying him young, and dissatisfied with his being arranged to obey him. However, he knew that Gao Yin was the next-generation head of the Gao family that Gao Qiao valued, and because of Gao Qiao's life, Mingli did not dare to reveal anything. After the siege, I despised it in my heart. I felt that Gao Yin was so serious about his affairs. It was a big deal. Tianshijiao was just a group of rabble.

Just a few days ago, Gao Yin came here to patrol the camp. After he left, Zhong Ming actually summoned a few cronies to drink and have fun in the tent, and privately ridiculed Gao Yin for being timid and incompetent. .

It happened that in the middle of the night, the previously defeated Tianshi Sect united hundreds of thousands of people, and under the personal leadership of the teacher Wu Cang, they launched a large-scale night attack on Piling.

The results are predictable.

Zhong Ming sobered up, and it was too late to form a battle.

When Gao Yin heard the news, Piling was already lost, and Zhong Ming was also killed by the chaotic army, with his head hanging high on the top of the city.

The triangular line of defense that had been laid out earlier was torn apart overnight. The next day, Wu Cang led his disciples and disciples to kill Qu'a, where the Empress was located.

"Gao Xianggong! The celestial teachers are all out, with no less than 100,000 heads, and the leader of the sect is taking the lead in the battle. He is extremely fierce. Qu A's defenders are insufficient, and they are surrounded on all sides. When General Gao was in command of the battle, he was injured by a flowing arrow. , Mr. Lu is leading the army on his behalf, and it is difficult to defend the city. The situation is extremely urgent! Previously, several messengers were sent out, but they were all found and killed not far from the city. The villain sneaked out, desperately escaped, and finally came here to report the letter!

The messenger knelt down and shouted loudly.

Gao Qiao's eyes suddenly turned black, his ears buzzed, and his body shook slightly.

He hurriedly came up to help him.

He stabilized his body, pushed away the hand that was holding him, grabbed Gao Yin's handwritten letter sent by the messenger, and read it at a glance, his shoulders froze.

In the tent, in front of him, stood around a dozen heavy-looking lieutenants, all holding their breaths, waiting for his decision.

Gao Qiao's figure was like a stone pillar, motionless.

Slowly, his hands fell weakly, and in those bloodshot eyes, there was a sadness full of resentment and helplessness.

"God's will, what can I do?"

He murmured, speaking to himself like this, his expression was like crying but not crying, smiling but not laughing, it was extremely strange.

The surroundings were quiet, no one made a sound, and the atmosphere was extremely heavy.

"Send someone to pass on a letter to Li Xie, so there is no need to stick to Liyang, and tell him to arrange a retreat and retreat to Qu'a."

He was dazed for a moment, and then ordered.

Immediately, there was an order from left and right, and he turned and left the camp.

"Let's order. Immediately withdraw all the defenses of Jiankang, and arrange for a break, so as not to let Xu Mi take the opportunity to catch up with the attack, and send it to Qu'a overnight."

He said to his subordinates.

When he said this, the bleakness and sadness between his eyebrows made all the people standing in front of him at this moment moved.

"Gao Xianggong!"

A general of the Gao family who had followed him on the northern expedition from a young age suddenly knelt down and called him, his voice choked.

"Gong Xianggong, please lead the troops and go to Qu'a to protect His Majesty as soon as possible, and leave it to the last commander! The last commander will definitely defend the city, and he will never let that traitor succeed!"

"The last general is also willing to defend the city!"

"At the end of the day, please ask for your order!"

The surrounding voices came one after another, and everyone knelt down one after another.

Gao Qiao's face was bleak and he shook his head.

"In Qu'an, in addition to the emperor, there are countless residents who have been evacuated from the past. Jiankang can be lost, but Qu'an must not be lost!"

"... Not to mention that Yang Xuan's troops will be called in a day or two at most, and will be called in three or four days at most. At that time, they will join forces with Xu Mi."

"It was not easy to deal with these soldiers and horses of the imperial court. What's more, now that there is such an accident, they have to be separated?"

He closed his eyes and opened them again. His eyes passed over the familiar faces of the generals who had been following him in the war many years ago. In the bottom of his eyes, a faint layer appeared. Glittering water light.

"You are all people who have followed me for many years. This time, it must be the will of God, and you don't have to sacrifice your life for this city. All of you listen to my orders, immediately gather your own troops, and leave as soon as possible!"

"The last will obey!"

Everyone got up from the ground. Some were secretly rubbing their eyes, some looked serious, and were discussing ways to retreat.

At this moment, suddenly, outside the barracks, at the end of the road leading to the southern suburbs, there seemed to be a strange sound.

The movement went from far to near, and at first it was like a dull thunder on the ground in the extreme distance. When someone wanted to listen carefully, in a trance, before he had time to notice anything, it seemed as if lightning was fast, and in a blink of an eye, it was rolling in and approaching.

All the people, at this moment, all heard it.

That is the shocking sound that can make the gods and ghosts change color only when the army is marching fast.

Accompanied by the rumbling footsteps and shouts that became more and more clear, thousands of troops and horses were swept in, the ground beneath them seemed to tremble slightly.

The Jingzhou rebels are here!

All the people, at this moment, immediately popped up such a thought in their hearts.

Everyone's expressions changed, and they all looked at Gao Qiao suddenly.

The atmosphere seemed to freeze in an instant.

Gao Qiao's two eyes also suddenly condensed.

On his shoulders, he stood up from behind the case, as if pressing two Taishan Mountains.

"Send an order to transfer the death camp to leave the city immediately and stop it with your own life! The rest of the army should assemble immediately, in the order of the battalion number, and quickly evacuate!"

His subordinates got the order and strode out of the camp. When they were going to arrange their own affairs, suddenly, a scout appeared outside the gate.

The scout ran wild, like a bolt of lightning, desperately rushed into Gao Qiao's barracks and fell to the ground.

"Gao Xianggong! Inspector Li - Inspector Li has brought troops here!"

The voice of ecstasy, from the scout's mouth, entered everyone's ears.

The atmosphere suddenly solidified again. In the tent, apart from the whirring sound of the scout who reported the news, there was no other sound.

But at the next moment, all the people seemed to come to life at once, seven or eight hands, all reached out to the scout on the ground and picked him up.

"Can you say that again?"

The scout swallowed.

"Xianggong Gao, all generals, it is Governor Li who has arrived! When the rebels in Jingzhou were in the Tu, they were rushed by Governor Li from behind and dispersed. Governor Li just led the army to Jiankang, and can enter the city immediately! "

Everyone looked at each other, and suddenly, no one took the lead, and they all burst into laughter.

Haha laughter, filled with a kind of incomparable ecstasy and pleasure like the aftermath of a catastrophe.

"Gao Xianggong, can you hear me? Inspector Li is back—"

The general turned to look at Gao Qiao, and saw that his eyes were fixed on the direction of the tent's curtain door. Suddenly, a strange light radiated, and he stepped forward, hurriedly walking out, but his pace was a little floating. He felt that something was wrong, and was about to go up to help him, but saw his body sway, and without warning, he fell to the ground.