EBE Chapter 568 The Army Arrives to Reinforce
Chapter 568 The Army Arrives to Reinforce
"Help! Help! Please save me! Please spare my daughter!" A woman's pitiful cry rang out from outside the courtyard, followed by indistinct bird language, a man's curses, and the sound of a knife slid across a throat.
The woman fell silent instantly, followed by the pitiful cry of a young girl, "Mother, Mother, please let me go, Mother, ah, let me go... don't touch me!"
"No, I can't bear it!" Lulu suppressed her heartache, stuck her twin swords behind her back, grabbed the wall with both hands, and nimbly flipped over.
"Lu'er, be careful!" Gu Ming shouted anxiously upon seeing this, and used a nearby rock to step on it and climb over the wall.
Then I heard birdsong and the sounds of fighting over there.
Now that the two important people had been overturned, everyone turned their attention to the only person in charge, Sister-in-law Nie!
"Open the door. Although our General's Mansion cannot protect the people of the entire city, it can protect the people of this ward." Sister-in-law Nie looked calmly and resolutely ahead.
The guards obeyed and opened the courtyard gate.
"People of South Street, hurry to the General's Mansion for refuge!" the guards shouted.
The refugees fleeing the disaster on the street rushed in upon hearing the shouts. They all rushed out onto the street and slaughtered the scattered Liao people. Lulu had already killed all the Liao bandits.
"Hurry inside! People are coming from over there." Lulu and Gu Ming dragged the crying girl into the mansion.
The guards had just closed the gates of the general's mansion when they saw a large group of Liao soldiers rushing towards them on horseback like wolves. Gu Ming felt a growing unease; if they were looting so wantonly in the city, wouldn't Youzhou City be in grave danger?
On the city wall, Lin Er, covered in blood, fought alongside Zhang Biao and the others against the Liao people. His soft sword had long since broken, so he picked up a long saber and began hacking and slashing incessantly. He couldn't remember how much time had passed, perhaps only a few hours. Fortunately, the Liao people had run out of arrows, and now only close-quarters combat remained.
Their forces were less than two-thirds complete, and they had no reserves. All the available men in Youzhou City had come up, but outside the city walls, Liao soldiers continued to pour in.
"General, when will you arrive?" Lin Er asked, desperately beheading a Liao soldier.
He wasn't the only one; Zhang Biao, Zhang Hu, Song Qing, and others who were guarding the north of the city, as well as Zhao Yizhi, all climbed onto the city wall with the crowd.
Looking at the densely packed Liao army below the city wall, Lin Er hated Zhang Yuntai, who was already imprisoned, to the core. It was all his fault for colluding with Wang Shizhong to lead the Liao army into the city.
With the fall of Youzhou imminent, Lin Er was on the verge of despair.
Suddenly, a howl was heard from outside the city wall. First, there was one howl, then two, and then three more continuous wolf howls.
The howling of wolves grew closer, and Lin Er was overjoyed. This was the general's unique signal; the general was coming! The people on the city wall also perked up; reinforcements had arrived!
"Kill!" As if they had sprouted wings, the exhausted soldiers suddenly became full of energy.
"What's going on?" Yelü Qiqi roared helplessly at Wang Shizhong.
Seeing the endless, scattered torches that suddenly appeared in the distance, resembling a red ocean, Wang Shizhong was also taken aback. With the city about to fall and victory seemingly in their grasp, reinforcements had suddenly appeared.
"Your Highness, let's retreat first, just in case there's a trap. The clan leaders have already plundered countless amounts of gold and silver, and they're reluctant to part ways. We should stop while we're ahead, or we won't be able to escape later," Wang Shizhong rarely advised him.
Yelü Qiqi hesitated for a long time, looking at the dozen or so boxes of gold and silver behind him, and finally hardened his heart, "Let's retreat, we'll go through the side door."
"It's terrible, Your Highness! Ximen has been ambushed!"
"Hurry, let's go through the south gate!" Yelü Qiqi spurred his horse, and the group hurried towards the south gate.
"Your Highness, the south gate is also blocked! It's full of Song people outside!"
What to do! The south gate is blocked, and the west and north gates are obviously also blocked. Yelü Xiqi was greatly alarmed; how many Song people could there be?
A soldier who ran out replied, "Your Highness, there are at least 100,000 troops. Their banners are so numerous they cover the sky and you can't see the end of them."
Yelü Qiqi panicked and looked at Wang Shizhong, "Look what kind of idea you came up with!"
Wang Shizhong smiled bitterly, "Your Highness, this is not my fault. The city was in sight to be breached. If the clan leaders had been more united, we would have surely taken Youzhou City. But fate is against us. Wang Erniu just happened to return. Now, we can only run away first. We don't care about the gold and silver."
Yelü Qiqi sighed, "Very well, at least we've weakened their strength. Let's go!"
Yelü Qiqi changed his clothes and, taking advantage of the chaos, led his men to rush out without regard for anything else. The city gate was not yet closed, and he found an opportunity to actually break through the encirclement. Right in front of him was Wang Erniu's personal guard camp.
"I really want to kill him!" Yelü Qiqi thought through gritted teeth as he looked at Wang Erniu on his tall horse, hidden in the crowd.
Wang Shizhong nudged him from within the crowd, but after much hesitation, he finally withdrew his hand, which was clutching the crossbow. Amidst the chaos, the crowd fled towards the city gates and disappeared.
"Where...where did all these people come from?" Zhang Hu was stunned as he looked at the red-clad army outside the city, which seemed to stretch endlessly ahead.
Wang Erniu laughed heartily, "Thank you for your hard work, I'm here."
"General, you've finally arrived!" Zhang Biao was so excited that tears welled up in his eyes, and he was somewhat incoherent. "We almost couldn't hold on."
“Who said that?” Brother Nie rode over, covered in blood. “The Liao army at the North Gate has surrendered completely. Thank goodness Hanyang arrived in time.”
"Wang Hanyang? He came all the way from Hubei Road?" Zhang Biao exclaimed in surprise.
"It's not just him, there are others too. These things must not be revealed. Let's leave that aside for now and wipe out the Liao people in the city first," Wang Erniu ordered.
"Yes!" The group accepted the order and left.
They divided the city into several sections and wiped them out one by one. Lin Er met Wang Erniu and learned that he had mobilized all the troops under his command from Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Fujian, totaling nearly 120,000 soldiers.
In the county where Lü Xiong was located, nearly 20,000 troops had already been stationed. They had traveled for a month, day and night, just for this moment.
What a grand scheme this is! Lin Er was puzzled, not angry at being kept in the dark, but only wondering. Wang Erniu smiled and sent him to the camp, where he met Lin Yi and Zhang Yuntai beside him. He immediately understood, and all his questions were answered.
It turned out that although Wang Shizhong used Zhang Yuntai's weaknesses and family members to coerce him into cooperating, Zhang Yuntai outwardly agreed, but then told Wang Erniu about it. After all, Zhang Yuntai was an official, and there were many unsavory things involved, which he could not tell others.
As for what Wang Erniu did, he had no idea.
Now that Wang Erniu has revealed his full strength, Zhang Yuntai is shocked. He wonders where the rumors of Wang Erniu loving his wife so much came from. He had spent so much time and effort to set this trap, only to severely damage the Liao army and cause him to lose his beloved wife.