Chapter 137 I am ashamed to be associated with cowards like you
The Song army once again arrived at the city of Xingqing Prefecture, which made the Western Xia people feel extremely embarrassed.
It had always been Western Xia that had oppressed and humiliated Zhao Song, but now, within a year, the Zhao Song army had reached the capital twice in a row.
The little emperor, who was less than three years old, sat on the dragon throne like a puppet, hardly moving.
Prime Minister Mo Zang stood to the left of the dragon throne. He looked at the courtiers below and said in a grim tone, "You all said that Zhao Song could not possibly defeat our Great Bai Gao Kingdom, but now, they are at the gates of the city again, and we have no brave men who dare to go out of the city to fight!"
All the officials in the court looked embarrassed.
If they were marching in the wild, the Western Xia Kingdom, which had the advantage of cavalry, would naturally dare to confront the Song army. As long as the place was large and wide enough, the cavalry would be invincible due to their advantage in mobility.
But the situation of the siege remained unchanged... the enemy army had already joined forces, and a large number of chevaux de frise and horse traps were set up around them.
No matter how powerful the heavy cavalry Iron Harriers were, they dared not attack the large-scale infantry formation.
Only in a fantasy world could there be elite heavy cavalry that could charge and break through an entire large-scale infantry line.
In the real world, the action of force is mutual. When heavy cavalry charges into the infantry formation, it is like being stuck in a quagmire. It is considered amazing if they can move ten more meters.
Therefore, as long as it is a positional battle, the Western Xia cavalry would not dare to act recklessly without the cooperation of a large number of infantry.
No one spoke when the Zang people met, and the beards on their faces were trembling with anger.
At this time, an official from the Song Dynasty stood up and said, "Prime Minister, as far as I know, the dog emperor of Zhao Song has already used golden medals to urge the army to return. As long as we hold the city for a while longer, we will surely be able to wait until victory."
"You don't need to tell me about this. I already knew it." Prime Minister Mo Zang snorted and said, "You are talking nonsense. When did my Great Bai Gao Kingdom encounter the Song dogs and have to wait for them to retreat on their own? You have dampened the morale of my army. Drag him out and give him thirty strokes of the cane."
Hearing this, the surrendered official from the Song Dynasty who had just spoken became anxious, and immediately knelt down and kowtowed, begging loudly: "Prime Minister, please spare my life, I am loyal to you, please spare my life, I am willing to fight bravely for the Great Bai Gao Kingdom, I will go now, please spare my life..."
Even until the man was dragged out of the hall, Prime Minister Mei Zang did not change his mind.
It is no wonder that the surrendered official from the Song Dynasty cried so miserably. Thirty strokes of the cane are fatal. Even if one survives, he will spend the rest of his life in bed.
The voices of the Song officials surrendering seemed to still echo in the hall. All officials lowered their heads. Even the little emperor on the dragon throne subconsciously looked down.
After beating a man to death, Prime Minister Mo Zang seemed to have calmed down a lot. He said slowly, "The Song army is coming aggressively, but it is almost winter now. As long as we hold on for a little longer, they will definitely come back to defend. This time, Mo Zang Su'er will still be in charge of the defense. Does anyone have any objections?"
In this situation, who dares to have any opinions?
The surrendered general clearly did not say anything wrong, so he was dragged out and beaten to death. Only an idiot would speak out at this time.
Without the order of the Prime Minister, the entire Xingqing Prefecture was mobilized and a large number of soldiers were placed on the city walls.
After the court session, Queen Mother Mo Zang went straight to Prime Minister Mo Zang and asked, "Brother, why don't we retreat first? Xingqing Prefecture may not be able to be defended this time. According to my nephew Su'er, a Master Lu has come from the Song people, and the tools he made are really powerful."
"We have to leave." Prime Minister Mei Zang snorted, "But we can't leave too obviously, otherwise Xingqing Prefecture won't last many days. We just need to be prepared first."
Queen Mother Mei Zang chuckled and said, "I understand."
Back to Lu Sen, after he refused the imperial edict for the third time, Lu Sen said to Mu Guiying: "Jinhua will be transferred to my side and obey my orders."
"Why is this?" Mu Guiying was a little surprised.
"I will guard the rear and not give the enemy any chance!" Lu Sen said with a smile.
"How could our rear be..." Mu Guiying was halfway through her words when she realized what was happening. She was stunned for a moment, then thought for a few breaths, pointed to a spot on the map, and said, "If the enemy goes around my rear, this is the only way to go. We can just guard it here."
Lu Sen looked at the map, took note of it, and then left the tent with Yang Jinhua.
Half an incense stick later, a group of people quietly left the tent and headed towards the rear.
After walking for most of the night, we finally reached the designated pass.
It was already dawn. After Lu Sen asked Yang Jinhua to set up the defense line, he sat on the col at the pass and looked at the fiery red morning glow in the sky.
Not long after, two men dressed as scholars also stumbled up. They were Wang Anshi and Zhang Zai.
Before Lu Sen left the camp, he captured these two men.
If we leave them at the front line, they might take away the command again.
"Master Lu, you are so bold." Wang Anshi walked up, pointed at Lu Sen's face unhappily, and cursed: "Your behavior is disrespectful to your king, father, and..."
Snapped!
Lu Sen slapped Wang Anshi's fingers away with great force: "I am not a Confucian scholar, don't use Confucius's tricks on me."
Wang Anshi felt pain and covered his fingers with a distorted face. Lu Sen had just been quite ruthless.
Zhang Zai immediately stepped forward and tried to mediate: "The two of you should talk it over. Don't be impatient."
Lu Sen glanced at Wang Anshi for a while and said, "I don't want to quarrel with him, but that doesn't mean I can tolerate him. If there are any more groundless accusations like this, I will just knock out his teeth to stop him from speaking so harshly."
"You!" Wang Anshi was furious. He was always proud. If it was normal, he would not have endured this anger. But for some reason, he always felt guilty recently, especially when facing Lu Sen: "But if everyone disobeys orders like you when going to war, the court will not dare to let famous generals take command anymore. Do you understand?"
"Oh, there is no point in having a famous general as commander." Lu Sen looked at Wang Anshi : "A good situation is wasted by a military supervisor like you, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been killed. It's better not to go to war."
"you!"
When it comes to this matter, Wang Anshi was speechless.
He tried his best to hold back his anger, and then said bitterly: "Master Lu, please stop being willful. Even if you block the gold medal from the capital, even if you really conquer Xingqing Prefecture, you will still be questioned by the censors when you return to the capital, and you will be offended by the government. This is not worth it."
"At most, he will be dismissed from office. What's there to be afraid of?" Lu Sen said with a smile, "But if we take over Xingqing Prefecture, it will be different."
Wang Anshi sighed: "It's not necessary. Even if we take it, we probably won't be able to hold it for long."
"Taking Xingqing Prefecture can defend the northwest, and look east to Liao State, forming a pincer attack on the border with the Zhong family. You actually say it is useless?" Lu Sen tilted his head and looked at Wang Anshi: "You may be able to handle government affairs, but you 'd better not get involved in military affairs."
Wang Anshi took a deep breath and said, "Now that Xingqing Prefecture has been conquered, who dares to defend it? This is the birthplace of Li Yuanhao. I ask you, who dares to defend it?"
"The place where the dragon rises?" Lu Sen sneered: "The conquered territory cannot be defended because of such an inexplicable reason. It is better for the Northern Song Dynasty to be destroyed now."
Wang Anshi was about to speak, but suddenly, he felt something was wrong. He frowned and thought about what Lu Sen had just said, and suddenly asked, "You said the Northern Song Dynasty... Is there also a Southern Song Dynasty?"
Zhang Zai, who was standing next to him, also shuddered when he heard this.
Lu Sen sat there looking at the rising sun in the sky, not saying a word.
"Northern Song, Southern Song..." Wang Anshi kept chewing on these two words, and soon he turned his head and looked at Lu Sen: "You are a cultivator, so it's not surprising that you have the ability to foresee. Tell me, did you see anything?"
Lu Sen turned his head to look at Wang Anshi and stopped talking.
Wang Anshi walked up to Lu Sen, grabbed his collar, and angrily said, "I'm asking you a question. Do you have the ability to predict the future and see..."
Snapped!
A heavy punch hit Wang Anshi in the face. Blood spurted from his nose and he fell back several steps. Then he screamed, holding his face with both hands, and almost fell to the ground in pain.
Lu Sen retracted his fist and said coldly: “I warned you before, don’t bother me again.”
"Jiefu, Jiefu, are you okay?" Zhang Zai immediately ran to Wang Anshi and helped him smooth his back, as if he wanted to use this method to relieve his pain.
Lu Sen continued to sit on the col and watch the sunrise.
Wang Anshi held his face in his hands, stared at Lu Sen hatefully for a while, then went down the mountain.
After that, Wang Anshi never met Lu Sen again. When he saw Lu Sen, he would turn around and avoid him.
But according to Zhang Zai's words, Wang Anshi had been muttering words like: Northern Song Dynasty...Southern Song Dynasty... during this period.
Lu Sen was too lazy to pay attention.
However, he did have a bit of admiration for Wang Anshi. This Wang Anshi was indeed a very smart person. He just made a slip of the tongue and said an extra word which was not very obvious, but he was discovered by him.
As the days passed, Lu Sen was stuck here and intercepted many "enemies".
There were three gold medals urging him to hand over his power as military supervisor, and two gold medals each urging Mu Guiying, Zhe Jizu and Di Qing to return to defend the city.
Together with the previous three, there are a total of twelve gold medals.
Lu Sen was playing with a gold medal. Next to him was a dusty special envoy from the post station. He clasped his fists and said in a distressed tone, "Master Lu, please let me go. I must deliver the gold medal to Marshal Mu, otherwise the higher-ups will definitely blame me."
"That's impossible. I've already caught you. Any superior who isn't an idiot will understand."
"But our superior is a bit of an idiot."
Lu Sen smiled: "Then just quit and change your job. I'm looking for ambitious retainers here."
"Become Master Lu's retainer?" The messenger was stunned for a moment, then his eyebrows lit up with joy: "No problem, no problem, I will leave now, remember to have someone tie me up."
Then the messenger left happily.
Lu Sen tossed the gold medal in his hand, looked at the contents of the edict, and chuckled helplessly.
As he expected, after he refused the order, the Secretariat set its sights on the generals.
Lu Sen did not dare to accept the order, refused to give up the position of military supervisor, and refused to return to defend the city. That was because Lu Sen was now a civil servant and was difficult to control. They themselves understood this very well.
Because even Sima Guang said when he was building a fort on the border: When a general is on the battlefield, he may not obey the orders of the king.
This general, of course, refers to the marshal who is a civilian official.
If it is a general who is in charge, that is another explanation.
So when the imperial edict and the gold medal appeared on Mu Guiying and other generals, they had to accept the order.
This is why Lu Sen set up checkpoints at the rear pass to block all gold medals and imperial edicts until Xingqing City was breached.
Now that I think about it, more than 20 days have passed, so it should be almost time.
With catapults and Guangzhao accumulators, the three marshals are all true masters of military strategy, and there are no literati interfering with them. Lu Sen can't figure out how to lose this battle!
Thinking of this, he chuckled.
At this moment, several cavalrymen holding the Yang family flag came over. After they dismounted, they were immediately brought to Lu Sen.
It’s an acquaintance...Lao Qi!
"Son-in-law, no, it's General Lu. Great news! We have captured Xingqing Prefecture." They were covered in blood and dust, with expressions of joy on their tired faces.
Lu Sen had expected this, so he was not surprised. He just stood up, returned to the tent, and smiled at hundreds of pairs of expectant eyes, saying, "We have captured Xingqing Prefecture. We have won."
"Long live!"
The soldiers roared madly.
At this time, Wang Anshi and Zhang Zai also came out of the tent. They looked at the excited soldiers with cold expressions, yet also full of confusion.
Lu Sen walked over and said with a smile: "Congratulations, Wang Pingzhangshi. Congratulations, Wang Pingzhangshi, as the military supervisor, you have conquered Xingqing Prefecture. From now on, you will be able to rise to prominence."
It was so weird that Wang Anshi's face was almost distorted.
After that, Lu Sen threw one of the imperial edicts and the gold medal into Wang Anshi's hands and said, "Take these things , take these soldiers as attendants, and go to Xingqing Prefecture to receive the prisoners of war and settle the post-war affairs."
Wang Anshi snorted: "So, I am the military supervisor?"
"right."
"Then Master Lu, please tie your hands as a punishment for disobeying the orders of the Zhongshumen, okay?"
Looking at Wang Anshi's angry expression, Lu Sen said with a smile: "Do you want to be punched by me again?"
Wang Anshi touched his nose subconsciously, but he felt that doing this in front of Lu Sen seemed like he was admitting defeat, so he sneered, held his head high and led his troops away.
Marshal Mu and others are very qualified as marshals, but they are not good at internal affairs and public security.
Therefore, the post-war affairs of Xingqing Prefecture still required the involvement of Wang Anshi and Zhang Zai.
Lu Sen looked at Yang Jinhua and several veterans of the Yang family, smiled, and said, "Let's go too."
Ten days later, the news of the fall of Xingqing Prefecture was conveyed back to Bianjing City by messengers on horseback at full speed.
At the same time, Marshal Mu and Marshal Di Qing had also returned victoriously, and Xingqing Prefecture was temporarily managed by Wang Anshi and Zhang Zai.
Xingqing Prefecture is in the hands of civil officials...that's good.
Hearing this, both the emperor and the civil and military officials breathed a sigh of relief.
All the previous gold medal envoys disappeared without a trace after going out, and no news was sent back. This really scared them.
I am really afraid that Master Lu is in the north and has already put on the imperial robe.
At this time, the official surnamed Li jumped out again and cried, "The disappearance of the Golden Envoy must be caused by Master Lu, and there is no news about him now. This is extremely suspicious!"
All the civil and military officials in the court frowned.
At this time, the Prince of Runan stood up with a small wooden box in his hand.
He hadn't attended court for more than a month.
Zhao Zhen asked, "Prince of Runan, what is in your box?"
"Master Lu's official robes, official seal, property documents, and resignation letter."
"What!" Zhao Zhen stood up suddenly.
The Prince of Runan picked up a piece of white paper and smiled as he read: "I am ashamed to be associated with cowards like you. Just this one sentence."
Many times, the fewer words you say, the bigger the matter.
After reading it, Prince Runan shook the white paper in his hand and put it back into the box.
Zhao Zhen sat back on the dragon throne with a gloomy expression.
The expressions of all the civil and military officials looked strange.
The court was dismissed very early today. A team of guards rushed out of the palace and went to the low hill... and then saw only a flat foundation in the surrounding woods.
There are no more square buildings, no more gardens in the woods.
Master Lu left and disappeared... This news quickly spread across the country.
