Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 165: Troops approach Juyong

On the other side, General Du was almost catching up with Gao Zhi.

Upon seeing this, Gao Zhi hurriedly ordered his personal soldiers to shoot arrows.

When General Du saw the enemy shooting arrows, he quickly lay down on his horse's back to avoid vital points. Although he was hit by several arrows, he was wearing armor and only had minor injuries and was not seriously injured.

He rushed forward quickly and knocked down several of the enemy's bodyguards with a few shots.

The horse under his crotch was about to give up, so General Du flew over and snatched the other horse's horse. He would kill God or Buddha if he could get in his way. When Gao Zhi turned around, General Du's iron mask was less than a foot away from him. It was stained with red and white things, which were clearly fragments of soldiers!

At this time, General Du suddenly took off his mask. When Gao Zhi saw his face, he was so frightened that his heart stagnated and his hands and feet became cold. For a moment, he could not control the horse under his crotch and fell off the horse in fright.

"You, you, it's you!"

Gao Zhi said tremblingly.

The person behind the mask opposite was Gao Zhi’s old friend, Chen Zhengdu.

No wonder he felt familiar with it before.

In the past Zhili Battle, Da Xi had 300,000 troops against the Jin bandits' 700,000. Chen Zhengdu personally led his troops to break through the Jin bandits' formation, chased the King of Jin, Wu Sheng, for hundreds of miles, and finally captured him in Dongwan.

Logically speaking, Chen Zhengdu had the merit of breaking the formation and personally capturing the bandit leader. If he wasn't the first to make the contribution in this battle, he was not far behind. But it happened that Mao Cheng was also in Dongwan at that time, and he snatched the credit from Chen Zhengdu.

It can be said that Chen Zhengdu is also unlucky.

As early as the arrival of Zhending, Chen Zhengdu led his men to defend the city. However, Wang Ziteng did not rescue as agreed, resulting in Chen Zhengdu being surrounded by millions of Jin bandits, with more than two-thirds of his soldiers killed or wounded!

Later, during the Battle of Zhili, Gao Zhi took revenge on his own and failed to provide cover as agreed, leaving Chen Zhengdu alone to fight against the Jin bandit army. In the end, only 3,000 veterans were left out of the army of tens of thousands.

After paying such a huge price, the credit that Chen Zhengdu had worked so hard to obtain was snatched away by Mao Cheng.

Afterwards, Chen Zhengdu was framed by Wang Ziteng, Gao Zhi and Mao Cheng. Not only did he lose his merit, but his family was confiscated for his crime. He was also exiled to the grassland after being hunted down by several people. Only more than 300 people were left out of the 3,000 old soldiers. He was finally taken in by Kah Khan.

Now that the two sides meet again, the situation has completely reversed.

The moment Gao Zhi saw Chen Zhengdu, he realized that he was finished.

He quickly knelt down and begged for mercy:
"General Chen, please spare my life. It was Wang Ziteng who forced me to harm you. I had no choice but to do it!"

Chen Zhengdu smiled coldly and said, "Really?"

As he said this, he stabbed out with his gun without hesitation, piercing Gao Zhi's thigh and twisting it.

"Ahhh!"

Gao Zhi was sweating profusely from the pain and rolling on the ground!

He begged for mercy again:

"General Chen, I was really forced to do this. I swear I have no intention of harming you. If you have such intention, let me pull out your intestines and stomach, hang you from the roof beam, and let you bleed to death!"

Chen Zhengdu still sneered and said, "Okay, then let me try!"

After saying this, he shot Gao Zhi in the stomach, ready to verify his oath directly.

Gao Zhi screamed in despair,

At this time, a rider suddenly came and stopped Chen Zhengdu.

"General, wait a minute, this man is the commander of Daxi. Saving his life may be useful to the Khan!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhengdu looked at the other party viciously.

This was his enemy, whom he had wished to kill for many days and nights. However, because of his frame-up, he, a meritorious official, became a criminal. His family was confiscated, his wife committed suicide due to the humiliation, his daughter was sent to the Jiaofangsi, and his son was in exile with no news since then. How could he spare his life?

Seeing this, the man looked at Chen Zheng without fear.

He was a personal soldier of Kah Khan, named Bazan. He was Kah Khan's nephew by blood, so he was not afraid of Chen Zhengdu at all.

Even though Chen Zhengdu's eyes seemed to be about to devour someone, Bazin still insisted on his opinion. He said sternly:

"Has the general forgotten who was fleeing like a stray dog, and who took him in regardless of his status?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhengdu tightly gripped the silver spear in his hand, wishing he could pierce the opponent's body ten thousand holes, but in the end he helplessly let it go.

If he left the grassland again, he would really have nowhere to go.

Bazan saw this and rushed to treat Gao Zhi's wound. Chen Zhengdu cut open Gao Zhi's stomach. If it had been a little later, with the medical technology of this era, Gao Zhi would have died.

Although the wound has been simply treated now, whether it can heal depends on Gao Zhi's luck.

At this time, his men brought Qi Jianhui over again.

Chen Zhengdu looked at Qi Jianhui with a complicated expression.

When Qi Jianhui saw that it was Chen Zhengdu, he was also stunned. After a moment, he reacted and was overjoyed. He hurriedly said:

"Fushan, it's you, you're okay, that's great, untie me now!"

Chen Zhengdu hesitated when he saw this.

Qi Jianhui shouted hurriedly:

"Fushan, don't you recognize me? I'm your brother-in-law!"

Chen Zhengdu's expression was moved when he heard this.

He sent people to the capital to inquire about the news. Now, among his remaining direct relatives, only his younger sister was not seriously affected because she married Qi Jianhui.

Seeing the effect, Qi Jianhui hurriedly said:
"Fushan, please let me go. It's not that I'm afraid of death, but if I die here, they will be left alone at home, what will they do?"

Chen Zhengdu heard this, thought about his sister and nephew, sighed, and said:

"When you go back, remember to put all the blame on Gao Zhi."

Qi Jianhui was overjoyed when he heard this and thanked him repeatedly.

Chen Zhengdu ordered his men to untie Qi Jianhui.

"slow!"

Bazin jumped out again at this time.

"This man is also a Han general. How can the general release him so easily without the Great Khan's punishment?"

Chen Zhengdu clenched his fists upon hearing this, thinking this was too much.

Looking at the other party, he threatened directly:
"If you don't let this man go, I will kill Gao Zhi!"

Seeing this, Bazin had no choice but to release Qi Jianhui reluctantly.

Afterwards, Chen Zhengdu returned with Gao Zhi and some prisoners of war.

On the other hand, after being released, Qi Jianhui quickly gathered the fleeing Daxi soldiers and fled back to Juyongguan.

It is said that good people do not live long, but evil deeds last for thousands of years.

Fortunately, Gao Zhi's wound did not become inflamed and he managed to survive.

He knew that he had to demonstrate his value as soon as possible, otherwise Chen Zhengdu would definitely kill him.

So Gao Zhi took the initiative to offer to help Caoyuan to open the Badaling city gate.

Chen Zheng didn't want Gao Zhi to achieve any merit, as that would prevent him from killing the other party.

But Bazin on the side admired Gao Zhi very much.

He agreed to let Gao Zhi give it a try with his captured soldiers.

So Gao Zhi endured his injuries and stood under the city with his captured soldiers and disguised grassland soldiers, saying that they were the soldiers responsible for support from the court, and took out the seal of the imperial edict as proof.

After confirming that everything was correct, the defenders on the city wall asked Gao Zhi why there were so few reinforcements.
Gao Zhi replied that in order to provide support as quickly as possible, he would lead a small group of light cavalry to go ahead, and the rest of the army, led by the deputy general, would arrive soon.

The defenders then asked Gao Zhi why his face was as pale as gold paper and he was sweating profusely.

Gao Zhi replied that it was due to the bumpy ride.

The defenders no longer had any doubts, so they opened the door and welcomed Gao Zhi's men in.

Unexpectedly, these were all traitors. After entering the city, they suddenly rose up and there was chaos in the city. Soon, a large army of grassland people attacked the city and Badaling City was broken!

(End of this chapter)