The journey of the only child of a peasant family to take the imperial examination

After saying this, Zhao Renzhi took out the handkerchief he carried with him, wiped the blood off the sword, and then put it back into the scabbard neatly.

Liu Sanlang moved his lips but still said nothing.

Kindness cannot command an army, and righteousness cannot command wealth, so he can only force himself to be cruel.

"Brother Liu, it seems that these people are just pawns. Next we still have to find out where the main force is," said Zhao Renzhi.

"But our military strength is limited. We can't disperse to look everywhere. According to the normal marching route, they must be in the area near Damingfu to Pingxiang. Why don't we continue to look south?" Liu Sanlang suggested.

"This is the only way. I don't know what went wrong with them," Zhao Renzhi felt very troubled.

The main problem is that there is not much food left.

In the past, I thought Yang Zhong was quite reliable in leading the army, but I never expected that there would be a day when he would be like a blind man playing the violin.

Little did he know that Yang Zhong had not expected the situation to take such a sudden turn for the worse.

He originally wanted to let the two deputy generals stay behind to repair and defend the recaptured city.

After the war is almost stabilized, pretend to be defeated and let the last wave of enemy troops attack the city, cleverly eliminating the two thorns in your side.

Generally, the military force defending a city is relatively weak, the situation on the battlefield changes rapidly, and victory and defeat are common in the military. There is nothing to complain about if this matter is made public.

But unfortunately, the two deputy commanders happened to have the same idea as him. They had been under someone else's command for a long time, and the two sides had always been at odds. The other side was also planning to take advantage of this Northern Expedition to get rid of him and establish themselves as king.

So after passing Guangping County, the two deputy generals who were supposed to stay in Guangping gathered their confidants and led their troops to ambush Yang Zhong.

Yang Zhong was careless for a moment, and his soldiers suffered heavy casualties.

The road back to Kaifeng in the south had been cut off by the two deputy commanders, and the plan to go north to meet up with Liu Sanlang and others was also forced to fail.

With no other choice, they had to head towards Guan County, fighting while retreating.

He wanted to take a detour from Guan County to Wei County, and then go to Jizhou via Julu.

Only by joining forces with Liu Sanlang and his men would they be able to fight.

That’s why Liu Sanlang and his team didn’t find anyone.

Deputy Commander Yan was very happy to see Yang Zhong leading the remaining troops to flee, so he naturally pursued them.

"Thinking back to when we were in Jingzhou, if I hadn't helped Zhou Ziming put on the yellow robe, there would have been no way that Zhou would have become emperor. As a result, after the new dynasty was established, he turned his back on me before he even sat firmly on the throne. How am I inferior to that Yang Zhong, but I actually let him ride on my head and pee and shit on me? Pah!" Deputy Marshal Yan became more and more angry as he spoke, and spat in hatred.

His good brother, Deputy Commander Zhu, beside him, smiled and advised, "Big brother, you're right. If someone named Zhou could become emperor, then we can become kings ourselves. Even if we can't take over all the fertile land in the world, being a local emperor in a corner is still more comfortable than being this useless deputy commander!"

"Brother, you make sense!" Deputy Marshal Yan nodded. Although he felt a little timid in his heart, there was no turning back after taking this step.

He immediately ordered his men to march quickly and kill all of Yang Zhong's men.

Yang Zhong and his remaining troops were chased in a miserable state all the way. With fewer and fewer people, he once thought that he would definitely die at the hands of Deputy Marshal Yan.

Unexpectedly, just as he passed Guan County and before reaching Tao County, the pursuers behind him suddenly disappeared.

Yang Zhong didn't have time to think too much and could only keep running forward.

Finally, they met up with the spies sent by Liu Sanlang near Wei County.

Zhao Renzhi and Liu Sanlang looked at the miserable crowd and guessed that something must have gone wrong.

Yang Zhong hadn't slept for several days and nights and was extremely tired. After drinking a large bowl of porridge, he fell asleep without having time to answer the two people's questions.

The situation is similar for others.

The two men captured a flag-bearing soldier who was in better spirits and asked him about it, only to find out that Deputy Marshal Yan and Deputy Marshal Zhu had rebelled.

"I felt from the beginning that this Yan guy was not a good person," Liu Sanlang was not surprised at all.

He had probably had this premonition in his heart that the two had been at odds for a long time.

Zhao Renzhi frowned and said, "Their rebellion is already a fact. There's no point in saying more. Our retreat has been cut off. We have no choice but to fight to the death. Otherwise, we won't even be able to return to Kaifeng."

"That's right," Liu Sanlang nodded. "But why did they suddenly stop chasing us? Could it be that they encountered someone from Bai Chao?"

"It's very possible that Bai Chao didn't ambush in Pingxiang, but in Guanxian? But this doesn't make sense. Could he have predicted that the two would rebel?

If the two of them hadn't rebelled, our team wouldn't have headed towards Guan County. We would have definitely been heading towards Jizhou via Handan," Zhao Renzhi thought, shaking his head, unable to figure it out.

Not only he couldn't figure it out, but Deputy Marshal Yan and the other two couldn't figure it out either. How could they meet Bai Chao's people in Guan County, and they were the main force with amazing combat power.

But some things may really be destined.

Neither side can figure it out.

But since they were facing each other, Bai Chao did not say anything and decisively ordered an attack, taking the initiative to gain the upper hand.

Therefore, Deputy Marshal Yan and his companions could only lead their troops to fight. Because the troops were dispersed, the final outcome was not very suspenseful. Bai Chao chased the remaining troops of Deputy Marshal Yan and others all the way to the vicinity of Liaocheng.

Seeing that the rain still didn't stop, Bai Chao gave up fighting and turned his horse back to Guan County.

Deputy Marshal Yan and others were able to catch their breath. It was his turn to suffer the same fate as Yang Zhong had suffered not long ago.

He was also a veteran who had been on many battlefields. He saw Bai Chao's reaction and after a little thought, he understood the key point.

He forced himself to stand up, exhausted, and ordered everyone, "Everyone, get up! No rest allowed! With these days of heavy rain, the dikes in Liaocheng are very likely to burst. When the Yellow River overflows, everything will be over!"

The soldiers below were exhausted and not very happy. No matter how they were whipped, they could not get up and were panting like broken bellows.

Deputy Marshals Yan and Zhu were helpless. What good was a general without troops? Whether they could make a comeback in the future still depended on these soldiers.

More than an hour later, a rumbling sound came from the sky. Deputy Commander Yan frowned, took out a telescope and looked in the direction of the sound. Then, without saying a word, he jumped on his horse and said, "You bastards, damn it! I told you to leave, but you refused. Now look what happened! Good things don't work, but bad things do. The Yellow River has really burst its banks. Get up quickly if you still want to survive!"

Then, without caring about the reactions of the people below, he took his personal guards and rode away on horseback.

Deputy Marshal Zhu reacted very quickly and immediately caught up on horseback.

The group of people left in a flash, and only their backs were left. The remaining soldiers finally reacted and hurriedly got up and ran out.

When the Yellow River burst its banks and flooded, the most feared thing was not being flooded, but the plague that followed the flood. Very few people could escape the plague.