The cavalry captain returned to the trolley and reported loudly, "Report to Your Majesty, Qu Tutong is unwilling to speak with Your Majesty. He said that he was responsible for the emperor's grace and was the chief general of Taiyuan, and he should have the responsibility to defend the territory. If he could die in the battlefield, it would be his glory."

Zhang Xuan nodded and immediately ordered: "Tell me my order, the army will be stationed in the camp!"

‘Dong-Dong-Dong-Dong!’

The sound of war drums at the camp sounded, and the 200,000 troops began to slowly retreat and quickly stretched to both sides. Yuchi Gong had already made arrangements. Each Hu Ben Guard had its own garrison place. The Zhou army set up a besieged camp three miles away from Taiyuan City. There were a total of four camps, located opposite the four city gates, east, west, south and north. The four camps were not completely connected, but a round-trip horse road was built between the camp and the camp to convey the message in the fastest way.

As the camp tents appeared in the wilderness like mushrooms, the spectacular Zhou army camp quickly formed an encirclement of Taiyuan City. As night fell, Pei Xingyan led 30,000 cavalry to finally arrive at the Zhou army camp. The Zhou army camp became particularly lively, and torches were lit in the camp, and the camp shone like daytime. Looking down from the city, it was like a fire dragon surrounding the outside of Taiyuan City.

The soldiers of the Tang army had just suffered a heavy blow from three news. Now the huge impact brought by the Emperor Zhang Xuan of the Great Zhou Dynasty was once again hit hard. The soldiers' fighting will began to decline significantly. The soldiers on the city became listless. The main commander Qu Tutong was gone, so the soldiers gathered together in groups of three to exchange strategies for saving their lives in the battle.

Although the army from Chang'an can barely maintain the morale of the military, the morale of recruiting local soldiers began to collapse. When Pei Ji recruited the army, he used Turkic generals to invade the south again to deceive the people of Taiyuan, and tens of thousands of children would sign up enthusiastically. When they discovered the truth and found that they were deceived, many soldiers were very angry and demanded to retire. However, Qu Tutong was properly appeased and increased the payment of money and food, and finally stabilized the soldiers' emotions.

If there was no today's morale impact, the soldiers might be able to stay in the army, but today the Emperor of the Great Zhou Empire appeared outside the city. In the hearts of Taiyuan people, Zhang Xuan was a god-like figure. In particular, he led his army to wipe out hundreds of thousands of Turkic troops, which made most of the Taiyuan people grateful to him. Therefore, Zhang Xuan's appearance caused the initial morale of soldiers from Taiyuan and even Bingzhou to collapse, and the phenomenon of desertion finally appeared.

It was already five o'clock, and the tent of the Tang army general was still brightly lit. Qu Tutong paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, and the anger on his face was hard to hide. As he headed, Zhao Jingnian, the military officer, was reporting to him about the desertion situation.

"As of the fourth update, the soldiers who had not returned to the camp in each city had summed up 845, the most of which was Dongcheng, with 377 people not returning after being handed over to the post. More than 90% of these more than 800 people were native to Taiyuan. It is not clear whether they have become deserters and will be confirmed again after dawn."

Pan Weisheng, the leader of the Southeast Camp, who was standing aside, kept wiping the sweat on his forehead. Such a first place really made him feel ashamed. He hurriedly stepped forward and expressed his opinion: "As soon as the sky was dawn, Bei Zhi sent someone to capture these deserters, and he would not let anyone go."

Qu Tutong didn't care about the most deserters in Dongcheng. He knew that Zhang Xuan appeared outside Dongcheng, so of course it had the greatest impact on Dongcheng. It was not surprising that Dongcheng had the most deserters in Dongcheng.

If the deserters were just over 800 deserters were just a corner of the iceberg exposed on the water, then Qu Tutong was more concerned about the iceberg hidden under the water, and more than 30,000 Taiyuan soldiers. What is their mentality now? Once the Zhou army starts to attack the city on a large scale, will these soldiers turn against each other? This is the real crisis for the Tang army.

Qu Tutong pondered for a long time and said to more than a dozen generals: "People can be arrested, but remember that this matter must not be made public."

Another general said in confusion: "Master, isn't it better to kill one to warn a hundred?"

"Killing one to warn a hundred will only prevent the soldiers from escaping, but it will not stop their inner war-weariness, and will also increase their anger. Once the Zhou army starts to attack the city, there is a possibility of mutiny at the last minute, so we cannot try to be quick."

"But if we do not stop it, there will be more and more deserters, and we are afraid that there will be serious consequences of Kaicheng's surrender."

Wang Jungu's eyelids next to him suddenly jumped, his face slightly unnatural. Just now, Qu Tutong's eyes turned to his face, "General Wang, what are your thoughts?"

Wang Junguo lowered his head for a while and said, "When they applied for the military, they all took money and food. If they wanted to withdraw from the military camp, they had to hand over the money and food."

"inappropriate!"

Pan Weisheng firmly opposed: "They don't get much money and food, and many people can afford it. They have to lose their lives when fighting, and they cannot compare with a little money and food. If we allow us to hand over money and food to leave, it will cause a large-scale resignation wave, and at least more than 10,000 people will leave. More importantly, it will cause dissatisfaction among the soldiers in Chang'an. What should we do if they also ask for a refund of money and food to leave?"

Everyone froze for a moment, and it was not appropriate to kill, and it was even worse if they didn't kill. After a while, Qu Tutong said to everyone: "It's better to do it according to my method! Take the person back first, and see what should we do to see the situation. If it really doesn't work, beat a hundred military sticks and lock it up."

Everyone agreed, and Qu Tutong immediately ordered everyone to go back and investigate the deserter situation and asked them to lead their troops to capture the deserter back.

Just as dawn, Wang Junguo brought a team of soldiers to the vicinity of Wang Shou's mansion. He looked at the list in his hand and said to the side general behind him: "You continue to arrest other deserters. I will talk to their heads of the Wang family. You can't just go to the mansion to catch people."

"Then leave a group of brothers to the general."

Wang Junkuo handed him the list, "No need, I'll bring a few personal soldiers, you go!"

He waved his hand and said, "Let's go!"

He led hundreds of soldiers to another street, and Wang Junguo turned his horse's head to come to Wang Shou's mansion. At this time, he felt something and looked up to the sky. He saw a pigeon hovering two circles above the mansion and flew straight into the mansion.

Wang Junguo was immediately excited. There was news outside. He hurriedly urged him to step forward, roll over and get off the horse in front of the steps. The housekeeper ran out, clasped his fists and smiled, "Is there anything wrong with the general coming so early?"

Wang Junguo smiled slightly, "I have something to look for the head of the family."

"General, please come to the mansion and wait, I will report now."

Wang Junguo threw the reins to his personal soldiers and quickly entered the mansion. Soon after, the housekeeper ran back and said with a smile: "What a coincidence, the head of the family happened to send someone to notify the general, and the general came."

Wang Junkuo was secretly happy. He knew that the letter sent by the carrier pigeon must have something to do with him, so he followed the butler to walk towards the study.

After sitting in the study for a while, Wang Shou sat on the throne and was carried into the study. Two maids helped the master sit down and retreated with the throne-san. Only Wang Shou and Wang Junkuo were left in the room.

Wang Junguo bowed and asked with a smile: "I just saw a pigeon entering the mansion outside the mansion, but what news is there?"

"No hurry, sit down and have a tea first!"

Wang Shou asked him to sit down and had someone serve hot tea again. After the two of them drank the tea, Wang Shou whispered: "I just received two letters, one of which was for Jun Kuo, which was unexpected!"

"What's unexpected?" Wang Junguo asked in confusion.

Wang Shou took out a letter and gave it to him, "You will know by looking at it yourself."

Wang Junkuo took the detailed letter and slowly unfolded it. It was a very short letter with only one sentence, "Wang Junkuo made contributions to the fight against the Turks, and specially named Wang Junkuo as the general of Hu Ben, General Zhongwu, and was awarded the title of Duke of Shi Ai County. Qin this!" The following signature turned out to be Zhang Xuan's private seal.

Wang Jungu's hands began to tremble. This is the emperor's hand order! General Hu Ben, General Zhongwu, this is the fourth-rank official position and the county duke. Wang Jungu's tears came out. The emperor did not forget his contribution to fighting the Turks, and had already prepared his official position for him.

"Congratulations to Junkuo!"

Wang Shou was also very happy. He was given the title of Duke of Taiyuan County and was granted the title of Yinqing Guanglu Dafu. Although Li Yuan also gave him this title, the title of the Zhou Dynasty was only reserved for his descendants. He did not care much about official titles, but the generous gift of the emperor admitted that he had made contributions to the country.

Wang Junguo wiped away the tears in his eyes and couldn't help but feel excited: "I really didn't expect that the emperor still remembered the incident back then. He made great contributions to fighting the Turks, but I was dismissed in the Tang Dynasty. The world is in a cold and terrifying way, which makes people sigh."

"I just said that the Great Zhou army has clear rewards and punishments. For military merits to exchange for promotion and wealth, this system is suitable for people like Junkuo who are relatively simple in the officialdom. However, we cannot let down the trust of the emperor, what does Junkuo think?"

Wang Jungu nodded, "Please tell the emperor that Jungu is always on standby!"

Wang Shou was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "I will send the letter to this evening."

"The family is the main thing to be careful. During the last rumor, Qu Tutong had already suspected that there were pigeons in the city and the outside world. He began to investigate the city. Wang's house is also one of the key targets for investigation. I saw the pigeons just now, and others would see it. I will send my personal soldiers down the city in the future."

Wang Shou nodded, "You make sense, but today is the last time I communicated, and I will not be caught by him at all."

Wang Junkuo carefully put the emperor's hand order close to his body, then smiled and said, "There is another thing, which is also an excuse for me to come to Wang's house. Two Wang's house servants were deserters. I hope the head of the family can persuade them to return to the military camp, so that they can avoid the pain of being arrested. They will be imprisoned for two days at most to show a warning."
Chapter completed!