Chapter 276: Zhu Li’s Death

It was a sunny morning. Zhang Huan inspected Xiangyang City under the protection of more than 100 personal soldiers. At this moment, Xiangyang City was already full of devastation. The largest city in Shannan, which was originally a population of 300,000, is now less than 20,000 people, all of whom are old, weak, women and children. Nearly 200,000 people fled. The war's flesh shield was tortured and killed after the city was broken, and the number of people was arrested, and the disease died. Various reasons made Xiangyang City no longer have the glory of the past.

The fire burned 30% of the houses, and there were ruins everywhere, and the empty streets were silent like dead. Zhang Huan only looked around and was in no mood to watch anymore.

"Go back to the camp!" He ordered helplessly, and everyone turned their horses and headed towards the camp. There were five or six camps in a total of 100,000 troops, two of which were stationed in the city, with more than 30,000 soldiers stationed in total, and the rest stationed outside the city. Some sporadic troops were dispatched to various places, such as Xinye, Zaoyang and other places.

Zhang Huan's commander's tent was located near the South Gate. It was originally a military camp of the Wang family with complete facilities. When he returned to the commander's tent, he happened to meet a sending soldier.

"Governor! General Helou sent Shuofang's battle report, which has been placed on the Governor's table."

Zhang Huan nodded, "I understand."

Shuofang's 130,000 troops attacked Li Zhengji, with He Lou Wuji's steady progress and Wang Siyu's strange attack. Most of Li Zhengji's army was recruited from Hedong. Zhang Huan was not worried that the two men who had been through dozens of battles would be defeated by Li Zhengji. It was not enough, but he was eager to know the situation of Shuofang. The sooner the Li Zhengji's rebellion was quelled, the more beneficial it would be to his battle in Shannan.

He quickly walked into the tent and saw a thick book on the table. He sat down and slowly drank tea while looking through He Lou Wuji's report.

To Zhang Huan's surprise, things were not as simple as he thought. Duan Xiushi from Xishoujiang City also joined the war, and Wang Siyu actually fought a battle with the Uighurs. Zhang Huan was slightly surprised. He put down the teacup and looked carefully.

The first battle took place on January 10th. He Lou Wuji ordered Cheng Lie's troops to recover Yan'an County to cut off Li Zhengji's journey to the east. Cheng Lie was ambushed by Li Zhengji's deputy general Liu Wenxi, and suffered a defeat and lost more than 2,000 people. However, Wang Siyu guessed that Li Zhengji wanted to send troops to attack Hexi. He also set up an ambush in Yanran County, annihilated more than 10,000 enemy troops who came to attack him in one fell swoop. He fought an annihilation battle very beautifully. Then Wang Siyu and He Lou Wuji jointly attacked Lingwu County, and specially vacated the east to make Li Zhengji abandon the city. Unexpectedly, although Li Zhengji abandoned the city, he retreated north.

While pursuing, Wang Siyu encountered a joint counterattack between Li Zhengji and 20,000 Uighurs. Thanks to Duan Xiushi's attack on the Uighurs later, Wang Siyu's tribe was able to withdraw to Lingwu County.

‘Tuoba Qianli?’ Zhang Huan suddenly found this name between the lines. His old friend many years ago actually became the commander of the Uighur Army. Zhang Huan then understood the meaning of the Northern Dangxiang Army. Tuoba Qianli naturally wanted to rebuild his Dangxiang Kingdom in a certain place in Shuofang and become a vassal of the Uighurs. The Uighurs could also obtain a Shuofang unit through him.

In this way, Zhang Huan also understood Li Zhengji's plan. The so-called Uighur army was his invitation. Yes, he should have guessed this long ago. At that time, his spy once reported that Li Zhengji sent someone to the Uighurs, but he did not react for a while.

Zhang Huan shook his head regretfully and continued to watch. After the failure of pursuit, He Lou Wuji boldly gave up Lingwu County and retreated south. Sure enough, Li Zhengji and Tuoba Qianli had a conflict on whether to continue to move south. Li Zhengji went south alone to Hexi, trying to seize Wuwei, but was attacked by Wang Siyu and He Lou Wuji at the left and right sides of Hui County. Li Zhengji was defeated and fled to the Uighurs.

The two then headed north and attacked Lingwu County on a large scale. He Lou Wuji succeeded in attacking Lingwu City with gunpowder at night. Tuoba Qianli was ambushed by Wang Siyu on the way to escape. Most of the 20,000 Uighur troops were annihilated, and only a thousand people fled.

Seeing this, Zhang Huan let out a long sigh, which means that Li Zhengji's rebellion had been quelled. He put the memorial together and pondered for a moment. He took a blank memorial and prepared to write the memorial to the court, recommending the veteran Ma Pi as the new governor of Shuofang.

At this moment, the personal soldiers came from outside the tent, "Report to the Governor, we have caught a man, and he said he was coming to join you."

"Bring him in!"

Zhang Huan became interested. He put down his pen, lifted the curtain, and brought one person in his personal soldiers. He saw that the person was a thin old man in his fifties. A wisp of yellow goat beard raised forward, and a pair of small triangle eyes flashed with cunning eyes. His clothes were torn and covered in mud, looking very embarrassed.

The personal soldiers let go of his arms, he moved a little, bowed to Zhang Huanshen and said, "In Xiashan Village, Qi Lu, a savage man, please see Governor Zhang."

‘Savage from the mountain village!’ Zhang Huan suddenly laughed. When did Zhu Li’s military advisor and the chief of the Hanzhong County Prince’s Mansion become a mountain village?

"Mr. Qi, did Zhu Li send me to negotiate with me?"

"No!" Qi Lu shook his head and said, "In fact, when I heard that Governor Zhang occupied Shangyong in Yongqing County, I left Zhu Li. This man acted against the enemy and killed brutally. If he didn't listen to my advice, he would sooner or later be despised by the people of the world!"

Speaking of this, Qi Lu sighed and said, "On the contrary, Governor Zhang would rather give up Jiangxia than help the people escape from suffering. One leaf would tell that Qiu is the one who accomplished great things in the future. Governor Zhang is a little bit of a poor study and is willing to serve the envoy."

Zhang Huan smiled, glanced at him sideways and asked again: "Now I want to fight Zhu Li, are you willing to help me?"

After saying that, he looked at this person coldly. If he immediately turned against him to help him deal with his former master, it would be better if he didn't want such a person.

Qi Lu understood Zhang Huan's thoughts, and he bowed and bowed again and said, "Qi only wants to have a clear conscience in doing things. Destroying Zhu Li early will only benefit the people of Jingxiang. Besides, I have defected to the governor with sincerity, and have already drawn a clear line from the past. How can I go to Qin and Chu again and think about the past old feelings? In this way, why should Governor Zhang stick to the new and old masters' arguments, and I feel sincere."

Zhang Huan smiled at the sky and nodded, "Well, I'm a little narrow-minded."

He pointed at Qi Lu at his personal soldiers and said, "Take Mr. Qi to take a shower and change clothes, and come to see me again after dinner!"

Several personal soldiers took Qi Lu down, and Zhang Huan picked up his pen again, wrote a memorial, and handed it to the informant soldier: "You should return to the capital quickly and hand it over to Yuan Zai, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War, and then ask him to submit a memorial at the same time in the name of the Ministry of War."

"Abide by the order!"

The informant soldier took the note and hurriedly left the tent. After a while, several personal soldiers had already brought Qi Lu in, who had finished packing. He was really a man who was lying on clothes and horses and saddles. Although Qi Lu, who had finished washing and changing into a new dress, was still not handsome, but he was elegant and smiled with a smile on his beard, no! Zhang Song's taste was too much.

Zhang Huan stood up, bowed to him and smiled, "Sir, please sit down!"

Qi Lu was not polite, and sat down happily opposite Zhang Huan. Before Zhang Huan could speak, he whispered: "The governor wants to destroy Zhu Li, so he must not be ruthless. This person is extremely ambitious. Even if he surrenders to the governor temporarily, he will rebel in the future. Don't try to use him just because he is a cabinet minister."

Zhang Huan pondered for a moment and asked without saying a word: "But he is a minister of the imperial cabinet, how could I kill him?"

Qi Lu narrowed his eyes and smiled slyly: "It's better, it's really easy for the governor to see this person again."

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The next day, Zhang Huan's 60,000 troops rushed south. At the same time, the 30,000 troops in Jiangling and the 30,000 troops in Fushui County also headed north at the same time. Three days later, the 120,000 troops surrounded the small Nanzhang County as iron barrels. Zhu Li wanted to break out of the siege several times, but was shot back by Zhang Huan's army. He sent people to Zhang Huan's camp to seek peace, but Zhang Huan's deputy general Li Shuangyu told the envoy that the governor had gone back to Longyou to deal with Li Zhengji and would not be able to return in a month. He could not do it, so he only said that he would wait for the governor to return before deciding whether to fight or peace.

Zhang Huan's army did not attack the city, and the two armies were in stalemate in Nanzhang County. Ten days later, abnormal movements began to occur in Zhu Li's army.

Nanzhang County was originally Zhongxian, with about 2,000 households, but almost most of them fled to Changshou County. Later, Zhu Xueren robbed them once, and there were only less than 200 households left in the city. Poor, these nearly a thousand people refused to escape their homes with a trace of luck. After Zhu Li's army entered the county town, except for dozens of young women who were chosen to serve Zhu Li, the rest became Zhu Li's military rations.

As the military rations are gradually exhausted, and the people in the city have been eaten up, the old, weak and sick soldiers in the army have begun to become a new source of food.

Several generals in the army went to Zhu Li to discuss breaking through, but Zhu Li refused to meet and only sent an order, "The soldiers are in the same place but not the many, and there is insufficient food. You can draw lots in the camp to determine life and death."

Several people looked at each other, and one person raised his arms and shouted angrily: "Warriors cannot die on the battlefield, but they will be eaten by their own people, isn't it heartbreaking?"

Another veteran named Ye Jian saw that Zhu Li had many personal guards at the door. He pulled the dissatisfied generals. The few people knew each other and left with hatred. When he arrived at the camp, Ye Jian called all the people into his tent and ordered the personal guards to look after the tent. He whispered to everyone: "I think Zhu Li will not escape the disaster this time. Do you guys have the will to protect yourself?"

Several of them were silent for a while, and just now scolded Zhu Lizhi General and said, "We are all old people who follow his father's generation. We should not betray him, but this person is too cruel and kills and eats people at every turn. He is ruined by him in the good fortune of Shu like the ghost realm of the world. He has lost all the hearts of the people in the world. If he follows him to the end, I am afraid that when we write the biography of treacherous people in the future, we will be included in it. What kind of face will we meet our ancestors? I would rather die than want to follow him."

Another man also hated, "It would be fine if he captured a man to serve as a soldier, but he also captured his wife to the wheel camp. I have been so embarrassed that no man can bear this kind of shame? I have advised him many times, but he turned a deaf ear to him. This man did not listen to the generals and only used his tribe members. There are still a few veterans who were left with him back then, and he has killed them. Even Mr. Qi left him. I only regret that I was blind."

Everyone said something, and they criticized Zhu Li for being cruel. Seeing that the time was ripe, Ye Jian waved his hand and lowered his voice: "I want to kill this person and surrender to Zhang Huan, and ask for a future. Are you willing to help me?"

"But!" One person stood up and said angrily: "This person cannot be redeemed for his evil deeds after death. I, Qin, would be the vanguard of General Ye!"

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Zhu Li lives in the Nanzhang County government office. In order to prevent his subordinates from causing trouble, he ordered two thousand guards to protect the county government office. In the past few days, Zhu Li seems to know that the situation is hopeless. He is in a very depressed mood. He only seeks fun with his maids every day, ignores military affairs, and only places a glimmer of hope on Zhu Tao, who hopes that he can persuade Cui Xiaofu to accept his allegiance. Even if he loses military power, he can at least be a Xiaoyao prince. Fugui will live forever. Zhang Huan will not attack him, which will hit his mind and try his best to delay time.

In the afternoon, after drinking and having fun with several maids, he was already half drunk, so he helped several maids to go back to the room to rest. Unexpectedly, as soon as he arrived in the yard, he suddenly heard the shouts of killing outside. A blood-covered personal soldier stumbled and reported: "Prince, something is not good. Ye Jian and more than a dozen generals rebelled and have already rushed in."

Zhu Li's drunkenness was suddenly awakened. Through the half-closed door, he had already seen a group of soldiers rushing towards this side with swords, and the sound of killing came from the backyard. He was so scared that he trembled all over and turned around and wanted to rush over the wall to escape. However, he was too fat and could not turn over. At this time, a soldier opened his bow and shot at Zhu Li's neck. Zhu Li felt dizzy. He loosened his hands and fell from the wall like a pig. The arrow passed through his throat. As he died, more than a hundred soldiers raised their swords and rushed towards him. Everyone's eyes were filled with deep hatred.

He suddenly thought of Chang'an, and the Queen Mother Zhang who was moaning and gentle under him. At that time, he was heroic and handsome, with silver hair flying in the wind, like a song, and time had passed, and he slowly closed his eyes, life was gone, and there was a hint of proud smile on the corner of his mouth.

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At dusk, Zhang Huan was suddenly alarmed by the sound of drums on the top of the city. As soon as he walked out of the camp, a personal soldier came to report: "Report to the governor, there was a change in the city, and the defenders threw their armor and swords down the city."

Zhang Huan was overjoyed and knew that Qi Lu was right, "Zhu Li was cruel and unkind. When his road was poor, his subordinates would have a different intention, so they would not have to worry about the governor's army or soldiers."

He quickly walked out of the camp. At this time, the city gate had already opened wide. A group of soldiers raised their hands to surrender. After a moment, the personal soldiers brought several surrendered generals. One of them held a lacquer plate in his hand. He half-kneeled down and raised the lacquer plate high. "The criminal generals Ye Jian all hated Zhu Li for his cruelty. He killed him and presented his head to Governor Zhang."

A personal soldier stepped forward to remove the red cloth, and saw Zhu Li's face vivid and his eyes seemed to be full of attachment to life.
To be continued...