Chapter 154 The Emperor is Really Lucky

The situation was quite chaotic. The siege in front of Jingxing Pass was still going on. The civilian laborers and lightly armored soldiers from Sizhou were driven by the supervising military officers to climb ladders to attack the city. General Li only killed the Jin soldiers gathered near one ladder, and the armored soldiers in the central army of Luoyang actually started fighting in the rear.

The chariot was obviously ridden by the emperor of the Jin court. Strangely, the cavalry of the central army that was protecting and supervising the emperor was blocked by other well-equipped central army crossbowmen, allowing their own emperor to successfully escape and head towards the Yecheng army in the north.

There were only a dozen or so riders following the chariot. It was obvious that these riders were not veterans of the battlefield. Not only were their bodies twisted and turned by the horses under them, but the armor they wore was also incomplete. Under the armor was a wide straight-hem robe.

He was obviously a close attendant of the emperor, and the most likely person was a palace attendant.

The army in Yecheng was obviously prepared. A team of horse archers immediately rushed out from the formation to meet the emperor's chariot.

These changes made Li Hao stunned for a moment. It seemed that the foolish emperor Sima Zhong wanted to get rid of the control of the Sizhou soldiers, that is, Sima Lun, and jump into the fire basin of his younger brother Wang Sima Ying.

However, this had little impact on the battle situation at the pass. After putting away his sword, General Li drew out his cross halberd and began to clear out these lightly armored siege soldiers along the foot of Jingxing Pass.

He had to deal with these Jin soldiers attacking the city first, to avoid them stealing Jingxing Pass after a fierce battle.

"Hold your ground and continue attacking the city!"

"Anyone who reaches the top of the city will be rewarded 100,000 yuan."

The mounted Sizhou soldiers and officers galloped left and right behind the sword carts, ordering and persuading the attacking soldiers to go back and continue fighting.

But the sergeants and squad leaders wearing heavy armor could easily defeat General Li with just one strike of their halberd. These lightly armored soldiers were not fully protected, and if they ran slowly, they would not even be able to leave their bodies intact.

It just so happened that most of the Jin soldiers supervising the battle were archers from the Shesheng Camp and the Jinu Camp. They were far away from General Li and did not need to escape at the first moment. This situation made it difficult for the knife-wielding civilians and lightly armored soldiers who were climbing the ladders.

Don't run away, there is a brave and invincible general chasing you.

Run for your life. There are a large number of archers a few dozen steps to the east. If you run to the trench bridge built over the river to protect the pass, you will be hit by arrows.

This kind of suffering is the daily life of the lower-class people, the military officers and the soldiers.

After disrupting the enemy's siege rhythm, Li Hao called out to the city gate and worked together with the rebel soldiers to push down the lighter ladders one by one.

As for the ladder truck with wheels, it was almost impossible to overturn it, so General Li found a large rock at the foot of the city and broke the step beam at the bottom of the ladder truck.

During this process, the Jin soldiers behind the sword carts were very dedicated to their duties, and round after round of arrows fell at the foot of the city.

Before he even crossed the enemy's trench bridge, Li Hao was pierced by many feather arrows.

The arrows that can penetrate the Ming Guang Armor are generally shot from larger and more powerful crossbows. The longbows and horn bows equipped in the Shesheng Camp have little effect on heavy armor. At most, they can hit the shooting holes or cut the armor ropes.

As for the horn bows that were equipped in large numbers by cavalry archers, the arrows they shot to suppress the enemy had negligible damage to heavily armored soldiers.

After the siege situation was reversed, the Sizhou soldiers also began to actively change their strategy. Their several catapults threw stones at the enemy generals who were destroying the ladders and battering rams in the corners of the city.

Li Hao didn't dare to take the stone bullets falling from the sky head-on. If he was hit, he would be injured and his bones would be broken. With his recovery ability, he would need dozens of days to recover.

It was a big battle right now and he had to save his body to kill the enemy general. After dodging a round of stone bullets, he raised a shield he picked up from the ground and strode along the trench bridge towards the knife cart in front.

This type of knife cart is somewhat similar to the side-compartment shield cart used by the Later Jin Dynasty in the late Ming Dynasty. Its main purpose is to block doors and battlements when defending a city, and it is almost never used when attacking a city.

At this time, the Sizhou soldiers gathered the knife carts together, roughly forming an arc. Soldiers such as Ji Nu and She Sheng hid behind the knife carts and shot arrows quickly.

The Luoyang Central Army can be said to be the most powerful army in the hands of the Jin court, so it is not surprising that they responded in this way.

The shield in Li Hao's hand was not covered with iron. When he charged, the Jin soldiers shot the shield into pieces, and the edges were even cracked. It was obviously unusable.

He quickened his pace and rushed to the gap between the two knife carts, trying to squeeze in through the gap and disperse the group of archers.

However, the Sizhou soldiers who controlled the knife chariots pulled the chariots back a few steps, which narrowed the gap and created an opportunity for the Shesheng and Jinuying soldiers to fire another round of shots.

General Li was annoyed by the round after round of arrows, so he went straight to the nearest sword cart, put down his weapons and shield, grabbed the wheels and the lower edge of the side, and used the sword cart to smash at the crossbowmen in front of him.

boom!
The knife cart weighing about 100 kilograms hit seven or eight soldiers of the Shesheng Battalion, causing little casualties, but dealing a heavy blow to morale.

After finding that hitting people with a chariot was more efficient than stabbing them with a halberd, General Li used the knife chariots around him in the same way. In a very short period of time, he threw out seven or eight knife chariots with the Shesheng and Jinu camps as barriers.

The supervising officers of the two camps, such as the captain and the officers of the detachment, could no longer suppress the fleeing soldiers. Nearly two thousand archers ran straight to the rear, and the scene was quite spectacular.

The Jin soldiers' officers on horseback were more clever than each other. They knew that the enemy general would definitely try to steal their horses, so they distanced themselves early on. After the Shesheng and Jinu camps were defeated, the mounted officers ran even farther.

Li Hao was a little depressed. It seemed that he would have to prepare horses in the future, so as not to miss the opportunity to fight when there was nothing left to grab.

He picked up a longbow from the battlefield, pulled out the arrows that were hindering his movement, and aimed at the Jin cavalry in the east, shooting as many as he could.

After the general destroyed the siege ladders and battering rams one after another and killed the enemy's supervisory camp soldiers, the direct attack on Jingxing Pass was suspended. The rebel soldiers all applauded and cheered for the general.

"Kill these slaves!"

"With the general here, the government troops will never be able to reach Jingxing Pass."

Li Lian, who was lying on the battlement watching the general, saw that the situation was in favor of the rebels and laughed so hard that his chest rose and fell a little too much, pulling the wound on his shoulder.

"Ouch~" Li Lian felt pain and his smile paused. He pressed the wound on his shoulder with his yellow teeth bared, then slowly smiled again.

He was besieged in Jingxing Pass by 100,000 Jin troops for more than ten days, and no news came from Jingxing County in the north. He felt very depressed, but he was the commander of Jingxing Pass. He had no one to vent his frustration and depression. After seeing his elder brother killing the enemy today, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The Jin army's siege situation eased, and most of the drama for the emperor's chariot had already begun.

After the chariot escaped from the central army camp, it was chased by the cavalry from the Yueqi and Tunqi camps.

The Yue Cavalry Battalion was famous for its riding, archery and extraordinary bravery. When chasing the emperor's chariot, the Yue Cavalry Battalion soldiers showed no mercy. The strings of the horn bows were pulled again and again, and the chariot's pillars were full of feather arrows.

The archers who came to greet the army from Yecheng were commanded by Yangping prefect He Yan. He was a very courageous man. He led his subordinates to fight against the Yueqi and Tunqi battalions while sending people to mobilize the soldiers from Yecheng to fight.

"Six schools plotted to murder the emperor, and all the soldiers followed the army to kill them and bring the emperor back."

"Liu Kun is plotting something bad. All troops, come and protect him!"

Most of the soldiers in Yecheng were infantry, and they were a little slow in changing their military formations, while the Xuchang army behind them moved much faster.

Hundreds of fully armored cavalrymen rushed towards the chariot. They said they were protecting the emperor, but in fact they were no different from the Yueqi and Tunqi battalions that were chasing the chariot.

Within a radius of several miles east of Jingxing Pass, most of the cavalry were mobilized by this chariot, which, like a strong wind and huge waves, trapped the small chariot in the middle area.

The situation in the carriage was not optimistic. The attendant Ji Shao had been shot by an arrow in the chest and was dying. "Your Majesty, Changshan Prince Sima Yi is both virtuous and talented and can be trusted. Chengdu Prince Sima Ying has a large army and can be relied on. Qi Prince Sima Jue is ambitious and should not be approached."

On his deathbed, Ji Shao quickly told the emperor the characteristics of the three kings.

Sima Jue was the second son of Sima You. Sima You was originally the second son of Sima Zhao. Because his uncle had no children, he was adopted by his uncle Sima Shi.

Emperor Wu of Jin, Sima Yan, had been on guard against the family of Prince of Qi all his life, but Sima Jiong inherited the influence of Sima Shi's faction. Previously, in order to win over Sima Jiong, Prince of Zhao granted him the garrison of Xuchang, which resulted in the Prince of Qi having a force second only to the Luoyang Central Army and the Yecheng Army.

The emperor, with a sad face, pressed the chest of this loyal old minister tightly to prevent more blood from flowing out.

"Minister Ji, Minister Ji~"

After serving as the governor of Xuzhou, Ji Shao had always been a close minister to the emperor, such as the Attendant of the Yellow Gate, and Sima Zhong relied on him quite a lot. Now that Attendant Ji was seriously injured, the foolish emperor was so flustered that he couldn't even speak complete sentences.

"Changshan King Sima Yi, Sima Yi..."

Ji Shao felt his hands gradually becoming weak, so he used the last of his strength to gently pat the emperor's fat hands, repeating once again who the emperor needed to remember the most. He stared gently at the panicked emperor, hoping that he would not be so nervous.

"Sima Yi, I've made note of this."

After being comforted by Shizhong Ji, Sima Zhong gradually calmed down. But after Ji Shao tilted his head, the foolish emperor became uneasy again and burst into tears.

The driver was a minister named Wang. He did not dare to drive the car directly to the archers that the Yecheng army came out to meet them. Instead, he simply bypassed the cavalry and headed towards the infantry formation of the Yecheng army.

Most of the eunuchs who fled with the emperor were shot to death by bows and arrows, and there were not many human shields left in this carriage.

"Your Majesty, I am He Yan, the governor of Yangping, and I am here to protect you."

The task given to He Yan by King Chengdu was to capture the emperor and escort him to Yecheng, an important town 400 miles to the south.

Therefore, the Yangping governor did not care about the loss of his subordinates. He sent two cavalry groups to intercept the Yueqi and Tunqi schools, and the rest of the people all surrounded the chariot.

Seeing that he was surrounded by cavalry, the Minister surnamed Wang had no choice but to accept his fate. He stopped the chariot and allowed the other side to send people on board.

"Your Majesty, I am sorry that He Yan is late in coming to your rescue. I hope Your Majesty will forgive me!"

He first pretended to be loyal to the governor, and then got on the chariot to confirm that the person on the chariot was the current emperor.

Sima Zhong was still in shock. When he saw the armored man waiting for the carriage, he stopped crying and asked with trembling teeth, "Whose general are you?"

He also had a sword, which was now at his feet.

"King of Chengdu."

He Yan saw that the emperor was fine, except that his crown and robes were covered in blood and three arrows were stuck in his body. He secretly sighed that the emperor was really lucky, so he sent his trusted military officers to board the carriage to escort the emperor south.

Sima Zhong recalled what Minister Ji had said just now, and murmured, "The King of Chengdu can be relied upon."

He Yan was very satisfied with this statement, so the cavalry did not delay any longer and took the chariot straight south.

No matter what the rations, military tents, or logistics were, as long as they brought the emperor to Yecheng, it would be the greatest achievement.

In the slowly retreating Sizhou army, Liu Kun examined the current situation.

The 6,000 armored soldiers under the jurisdiction of the six schools were controlled by Sun Hui. During the previous attack, he instigated Meng Xiang to send people to fight with Sun Hui and shot the son-in-law to death.

It is still unknown whether the emperor is alive or dead. Most of the soldiers from the Tunqi and Yueqi schools who were chasing the emperor's chariot will never come back. Without the emperor as a barrier, the soldiers of Yecheng will definitely have a big fight with the isolated Sizhou soldiers who have penetrated deep into the territory to weaken the strength of the central army in Luoyang.

Liu Kun and Sun Xiu have always been at odds with each other. Now that he has returned in defeat, he will surely encounter difficulties everywhere. He will not have a good ending if he returns, so it is better for him to surrender to Sima Ying, the King of Chengdu, as soon as possible.

"My friend, I haven't seen you for a few months. I hope you are doing well."

Just when he was worried, a dozen cavalrymen rushed over from the northeast. The leader was Zu Ti, his good friend when he was the chief clerk of Sizhou.

Six months ago, after the King of Qi was transferred to Xuchang to guard it, Zu Ti followed the King of Qi to Xuchang. The two had not seen each other for six months.

Liu Kun immediately ordered his men to send Zu Ti and his followers to the front.

After the two sides got together, they exchanged greetings for a moment, and then tacitly discussed the current situation.

"Whether the emperor is alive or dead, the King of Qi and the King of Chengdu must serve the emperor and return to Luoyang. Sima Lun is in danger, so why don't my friends choose a good tree to live in?"

Zu Ti's first move was a killing move. The King of Qi and the King of Chengdu only sent their trusted confidants to reach a verbal promise, but that was enough. Everyone worked together to kill Sima Lun who was entrenched in Luoyang first.

"I'm afraid that the King of Qi has too many talented subordinates and generals, and there is no place for me."

Liu Kun first asked for a price. The families of his Sizhou soldiers were all near Luoyang, and he was afraid that they would mutiny if he could not take them to Xuchang.

Only if there were 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers from Xuchang and the Sizhou soldiers, who were mainly composed of the Yamen Army, could the mutiny be suppressed.

If the Xuchang army marched out together and attacked Luoyang at the same time as this Sizhou army marched south, he could ask for a higher price for leading his troops to surrender.

"My friend, don't worry. The title of duke or marquis is up to you to choose." Zu Ti patted his chest. He didn't dare to say anything else. Everyone can have the title of duke or marquis.

Even a commander of 500 troops could be promoted to the rank of marquis.

Liu Kun, who was in charge of the imperial court, sighed deeply and had no choice but to accept this condition. He ordered the entire army to return to the camp and move quickly south.

He had no close relatives on the side of the King of Chengdu, and the officials in the palaces of the King of Chengdu and the King of Changshan were almost all from high-ranking aristocratic families, so he had never been able to get a high-ranking official position in the past.

The retreat of the Sizhou soldiers made most of the day's attack and defense efforts go to waste, and Sima Yi in the infantry formation of Yecheng was so angry that he whipped his horse whip in vain.

"We have to wipe out the bandits today. How can we give up halfway?"

The officers around him did not dare to persuade him.

Just as he was regretting, a horseman suddenly rushed straight to the front of the infantry formation of Yecheng.

"Which one is Sima Ying and which one is Sima Yi!"

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(End of this chapter)