long moon smiles in the sky

Qingzhou in the fourth year of Qingli, at the south foot of Huashan Mountain, beside Luoshui River, in the hinterland of Luoyang Plain.

On the grassy plain, military tents spread out densely for hundreds of miles. In front of the tent was a camp gate with a large golden banner in front of the gate, with the words "Lord Li of the Great Xia Kingdom" written on it. The flag trembled and fluttered with the wind howling across the desert.The cavalry lined up in front of the gate of the camp. The Xixia soldiers were all strong and brave, carrying sharp knives, and the horses were fat. All the men and horses were black helmets and armors, full of evil spirits.At the forefront of the mighty team, there was a tall yellow puma with a golden dragon-shaped crown on its head, and a man sitting on the horse's back, holding a golden long knife in a golden helmet and armor.This person is about thirty years old, with a burly figure, eagle eyes, hooked nose and thin lips, with a trace of viciousness in his domineering appearance, and a short stiff beard around his lips, rough and somewhat nomadic The unique ferocity of the tribe.This person is Li Yuanhao who is young but has been the lord of Xixia for seven years.

Since Li Yuanhao ascended the throne, he has launched wars against the Song Dynasty year after year. In just a few years, he has experienced the Battle of Haoshuichuan and the Battle of Dingchuanzhai, and has captured more than a dozen cities in the Song Dynasty.A month ago, Li Yuanhao personally led 40 elite soldiers, starting from Xiazhou, attacking the city and conquering land all the way, capturing Yan'an Mansion and Gyeongju, and targeting Jinzhou on the other side of the Luoshui River.Jinzhou is the junction of Taiyuan Prefecture and Henan Prefecture. Its geographical location is extremely important. Once it is lost, the Xixia Army can attack Zhengzhou Prefecture via Fenshui, directly threatening Kaifeng, the capital of the Great Song Dynasty.In other words, if Jinzhou wins, the Great Song Dynasty will live, and if Jinzhou loses, the Great Song Dynasty will perish.

Renzong sent General Xia Qiulong to resist with millions of elite soldiers, but it was a pity that Xixia soldiers were brave and good at fighting, and Li Yuanhao was good at using tactics. In just a few days, Song soldiers lost more than half, so they had to retreat to the Luoshui River, and the situation was critical.

"Great Xia soldiers, listen up!" Li Yuanhao shouted to the soldiers, holding a treasured sword in his hand, "In today's battle, we can only win but not lose. We will break through Jinzhou and reach Tokyo, and use the head of Zhao Zhen's child as a sacrifice for all generations of our Great Xia Kingdom." Foundation flag!"

The soldiers responded with one call, and the shouts shook the sky. Then the horns sounded everywhere, and the cannons rang three times. Li Yuanhao led the army to kill the Song Army's camp.Hundreds of thousands of troops came galloping on horseback, and the ground of the entire Luoyang Plain seemed to be shaking.

At the same time, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses rushed out of the camp of the Northern Song Dynasty. The leader, with silver helmets and armor, and silver hair and long beard, was the Marshal of the Song Army this time, the old general Xia Qiulong.

"Catch Xia Qiulong alive!" The Xixia army was unstoppable, and within a few moments, the Song army was scattered and fled. Li Yuanhao led his troops into the Song army's camp, but he was stunned... There was no one in the Song army's camp.

"Is it a trick?" Li Yuanhao was stunned for a moment, but after thinking about it, it was impossible. Although there were high grounds on both sides, the Song army was already at the end of its strength. Only then will they take the initiative to attack the camp.

"Lord Wolf!" Lieutenant General Tan Lin said to Li Yuanhao, "Xia Qiulong and those Song soldiers are gone."

"What?" Li Yuanhao frowned, realizing that something was wrong, but before he could speak, he heard a burst of laughter from the valley, "Four Wolf Lords, you're being careless."

Li Yuanhao was stunned for a moment, looking left and right, but couldn't tell the source of the voice, and immediately realized that the speaker had extremely high internal strength.

"There!" A few soldiers raised their hands and pointed at the top of the high cliff to the east.

Li Yuanhao looked up and was taken aback.

I saw a man standing on the top of the steep cliff. He was dressed in white and had a tall figure. His black hair fluttered gently with the wind on the top of the mountain. He was standing casually with a silver-white long knife in his hand.

Li Yuanhao's gaze was like a torch. Although he was far away, he could see the man's facial features clearly, and couldn't help but hesitate slightly.Although he is a man, he is really good-looking. His eyebrows, eyes, mouth and nose are all one-in-a-million. Three points uninhibited, one point evil spirit.

Li Yuanhao, who ranks among the top martial arts masters in the Central Plains, has investigated all of them. Although he has never seen this person with his own eyes, he has seen the portrait... To be able to dress so freely in white, even though he is a man, he can be so beautiful that even a man People who want to look more often, who else can there be in the Central Plains Wulin?It must be Chinchilla Bai Yutang.

Li Yuanhao frowned slightly. This man's fame in Jianghu is not just because of his appearance... Look at the silver long knife in his hand, it is the famous dragon scale tempered blade, and Bai Yutang is the No. 1 martial arts sword in the Central Plains. Notoriously domineering and eccentric, this person is far less likable than he looks.

Seeing Li Yuanhao staring at him thoughtfully, Bai Yutang understood in his heart, and said, "Four wolf lords, retreat, or I'm afraid you will become a dead wolf lord, along with your hundreds of thousands of subordinates."

Li Yuanhao frowned. At this moment, he felt that the ground of Luoyang Plain suddenly began to shake slightly. It seemed that thousands of troops were rushing from all directions.

When Bai Yutang saw the Xixia soldiers and horses in chaos, he smiled slightly and said, "When the Yellow River floods in October, Luoshui will also rise... Do you think this is surrounded by mountains on all sides, with a flat land in the middle... like a big bowl? "

Li Yuanhao's eyes widened in an instant, and he looked at Bai Yutang in disbelief. He saw Bai Yutang suddenly raised his hand and drew the knife out of its sheath. Even though it was broad daylight, the cold light of the dragon's scale tempered the blade still made Li Yuanhao's eyes tremble. .He heard Bai Yutang yelling into the distance somewhat slowly, "Cat, what are you dawdling about?"

Li Yuanhao was startled, and when he turned his head, his mind flashed—the most difficult thing in the Central Plains martial arts is two people, one is a mouse and the other is a cat...

Turning his head abruptly, he saw another person standing far away from Bai Yutang. His body shape was similar to Bai Yutang's, and he was also thin and tall. He also looked about the same age as Bai Yutang, but his temperament was not there. Uninhibited, but quiet and elegant.Compared with Bai Yutang, who was handsome and handsome, this person was extremely restrained, clean and handsome, and he was dressed in a water-blue gown, which was a bit refined. In Li Yuanhao's opinion, this person's appearance was really extraordinary.With an ancient black sword in his hand... Juque, Li Yuanhao frowned deeply, Yumao Zhanzhao.

Zhan Zhao raised his eyes to look at Li Yuanhao, and sneered, "Four Wolf Lords, you have offended my country and hurt my people for no reason... I will give you a basin of cold water today to cool you down." After speaking, he shook his wrist and drew his sword out of its sheath.At the same time, he saw Bai Yutang flying out from the cliff, instead of falling, he turned around in the air, stepping on the cliff and dragging his long knife as he sprinted past.Following his movements, the dragon scale tempered blade brought out strings of fire hearts on the stone wall, followed by the sound of "sizzling" fuses burning...

"Not good!" Li Yuanhao yelled. Gunpowder was buried in the cliff. The voice just now should be that the Song army led the water of Luoshui into the ditch on the top of the cliff. The cliff is now a dam. , the rolling Luohe River will flood the sky, not to mention that he only has hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, even if he has several million, he will not be able to withstand the rush of this flood.

"Retreat! Retreat quickly!" Several lieutenants of Li Yuanhao ordered the soldiers to turn their horses and run out of the valley.

"Don't even try to run!" Zhan Zhao on the opposite cliff suddenly flew out, opened his arms like a bird, jumped down with the howling mountain wind in the valley, and jumped up in the air without any support, raising his hands to face him. He swung his sword at the only entrance into the valley.A sword qi swept across the ground, and Li Yuanhao felt the smell of sulfur and smoke in the wind that suddenly changed the direction of the wind. Suddenly a raging fire ignited.

There was a big fire blocking the way ahead, and Bai Yutang had already walked around the cliff behind. All the thunderbolts buried in the stone wall had exploded, and a large number of boulders rolled down. The Xixia soldiers fled in all directions to avoid the falling rocks.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao had already landed on the only safe high slope on the top of the cliff. Zhan Zhao turned his head and shouted to the soldiers who had already prepared on the top of the mountain, "Open the gate!"

At the same time, a series of explosions sounded in the valley, and in an instant, the flood rushed out of the unstoppable cliff top like a beast out of a cage, rushing towards hundreds of thousands of Xixia troops.

In an instant, Li Yuanhao was washed into the flood together with the 50 horses.

The Xixia army was rushed to the mouth of the valley by the water, and they were defeated and defeated. Xia Qiulong, who was originally ambushing there, rushed out with a hundred thousand soldiers and horses.Song Jun was riding a war horse, each with several net pockets in their hands, and when they saw a Xixia soldier, they caught one. Suddenly, someone shouted, "Catch Li Yuanhao!"

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao on the cliff looked down the mountain and saw a military academy wrapping Li Yuanhao in a net and bringing him to Xia Qiulong's horse.

Li Yuanhao had probably never been in such a mess since he was born. The famous four wolf lords of Xixia were trapped in the net pocket like this, fell in front of the old general Xia Qiulong, and became a prisoner.

"Hahaha..." Xia Qiulong stroked his long silver beard, looked up to the sky and laughed.

On the top of the mountain, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other and smiled knowingly.

In the battle of Luoshui, the Song army wiped out the 40 Xixia army without wounding a single soldier. The wolf lord Li Yuanhao was captured alive, and Xixia's vitality was seriously injured.

A few days later, Song Xia negotiated a peace agreement, and Song named Yuan Hao as the lord of the country.The ten-year Song Xia war finally came to an end.

Qingli five years, early spring.

Kaifeng Prefecture has ushered in the first rain in spring. In the morning after the rain, the sun breaks through the clouds, and green shoots emerge from the branches, which is full of spring.Blessed by God last winter, although it snowed a few times, the weather was not too cold. In addition, the war stopped for nearly half a year, and the people were able to cultivate their health and rest, and there was a scene of prosperity in the Central Plains.

This morning, a young man with a medicine basket on his back ran in hastily from outside Kaifeng City. The hem of his clothes was covered with blood. .He knocked and shouted, "It's amazing! It's killing people! So many people have died."

A few yamen servants came out and saw that the drummer was a young man who looked like a doctor who went to the mountains to collect medicine, so they asked, "Little brother, where did you say that someone died?"

"Outside the city! There are so many dead people on the official road outside the city!" The young doctor's tongue was a little knotted, and his legs were shaking slightly, obviously frightened.

The two yamen servants looked at each other and asked, "Which city gate?"

"Xi... Ximen..." the doctor replied.

"Help him in and report to your lord." A yamen servant said, "Master Zhan seems to be patrolling the streets. I'll inform him."

……

At this time, Zhan Zhao was leading Zhang Long and Zhao Hu to patrol the streets in the southern market.Recently, Kaifeng Mansion can be said to be a peaceful and prosperous world, not to mention human life lawsuits, even snitches and thieves are rare, everyone in Kaifeng Mansion is so idle.

Zhan Zhao yawned indistinctly while walking in front, feeling bored.

When a few people passed by Yipinlou, the largest restaurant in Kaifeng Prefecture, Zhan Zhao started to feel drowsy. At this moment, he felt the wind behind his head. Zhan Zhao lowered his head instinctively, and caught a glimpse of a white sleeve brushing his face from the corner of his eye. .

Someone who originally wanted to take a picture of Zhan Zhao took a blank shot, and muttered with some dissatisfaction, "Dead cat."

Hearing the familiar voice, Zhan Zhao raised his face, blocked the second slap from the person, glanced at the person in front of him, curled his lips, "Rat."

Bai Yutang withdrew his hand, put the knife on his shoulder, and looked at Zhan Zhao with the usual ruffian look, "Cat, Yintang is black."

Zhan Zhao's face darkened in an instant, and he said in his heart that he hadn't seen this dead mouse for a few months, and he would curse me when we met, "Why are you here?"

"I'm here to hang out with big brother." Bai Yutang said nonchalantly, "Luo Changfeng from the Changfeng Escort Bureau knows, right?"

"Oh." Zhan Zhao nodded, "He's going to celebrate his birthday in two days and wash his hands in the gold basin, right?"

"Yeah." Bai Yutang nodded, "Brother is an old friend with him, and our brothers are all here."

"Brother, are they coming too?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Bai Yutang rolled his eyes at him, "Why are you calling me so dear? That's my elder brother."

Zhan Zhao also rolled his eyes at him, and walked forward together with Zhang Long and Zhao Hu. Seeing Zhan Zhao leave, Bai Yutang caught up with him, patted him, and said, "Hey, I live in Baixunzhuang. Remember to come and drink with me when you have time, I have a jar of the best Lihuabai!"

"Okay." Zhan Zhao nodded. Just as he was about to leave, he saw a yamen servant running from a distance, shouting, "Lord Zhan! Something happened!"

Zhan Zhao was stunned for a while, blinked, turned to look at Bai Yutang behind him, and said, "You bastard, you haven't had any accidents for a few months, and accidents will happen as soon as I see you!"

Bai Yutang stared back at Zhan Zhao with his eyes wide open, "I told you that your Yintang has turned black! Don't blame others."

So, the two stood in front of the restaurant door, staring and grinding their teeth.