Volume 3 Chapter 65 Accounts
After arriving in Chang'an, or even from the moment he left Tokyo, Zhao Jiu has been in a very depressed mood. If you are not in his situation, it is hard to imagine how much pressure he is under... The life and death of hundreds of thousands of people, the gains and losses of tens of millions of people, may all be decided in a battle, and the victory or defeat of this battle will largely depend on the choices and judgments of him as an official.
But at the same time, apart from the names of Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, Zhang Rong and Li Yanxian, everything looks and sounds unreliable.
Even the things that Zhao Jiu had done personally, or the results of all the hard work of this time traveler in the past three years, now made people feel doubtful under the upcoming test.
Would it really improve the efficiency of military construction if the southern fiscal revenue was directly diverted to the various generals? Were the materials that almost exhausted the blood and sweat of the people of Henan really used by these people for military purposes? With 200,000 soldiers in the imperial camp, would the high-ranking officers really fight bravely just because of those notes, and would the soldiers really fight bravely just because of those military pay and the last-minute reports? Did the scholars sent to the army really not complain all day long, wasting money and staff?
And this is just the Imperial Camp Army. They have worked hard for a long time and invested a lot. It is very likely that they only account for half of the combat power in the decisive battle. As for the other half of the Western Army, Zhao Jiu can't find any problems at all, because he doesn't even know where the problem might lie!
But isn’t this having a child? Isn’t this doubly anchored in this world?
Isn't it that, regardless of selfishness or justice, regardless of future expectations or previous experiences, it ultimately brings together a sense of responsibility that he has to face?
So he has held on until now, and will continue to hold on in the future.
"The official has great archery skills!"
Seeing that Emperor Zhao shot several arrows in succession, almost every one of them hit the target, Zhang Jun, the transport envoy of the five routes of Bashu, was sincerely impressed.
However, in the comfortable temperature of the morning, Zhao Jiu, who had only shot half a barrel of arrows without even breaking a sweat, put away his bow and arrows, but he did not think much of it: "My archery skills are only practiced at the shooting range and hunting ground. They look fancy, but when I really get to the battlefield and face the Jin people, I might not even be able to pull the bow open... Let's not talk about this. Deyuan came to see me so early in the morning. Is there any news?"
"Fangzhou has reported to the Chang'an garrison." Zhang Jun immediately became serious and replied with a folded hand. "Your Majesty, this time it is Wu Jie's own report..."
Zhao Jiu nodded and sat down in the corridor without any unnecessary expression: "Wu Jie is still in Fangzhou? It's actually quite good that he can resist layer by layer. Then, according to the previous statement, we should send reinforcements to Yaozhou Tongguan (Tongchuan in later generations) next to Fangzhou to provide support, so that he can retreat when necessary..."
"It's not any other city in Fangzhou Prefecture, it's Fangzhou City." Zhang Jun, who followed to the corridor, waited patiently for Emperor Zhao to finish speaking before explaining.
Zhao Jiu obviously didn't react at first, but after a moment he was stunned: "Is Wu Dashang still in Fangzhou City?"
"Yes!" Zhang Jun responded earnestly. "He had never been a military governor before, and he didn't know the emperor was in Chang'an, so naturally he had to report everything to Hu Jinglüe in Ningzhou. But this time it was different, so he reported to Ningzhou while sending a message to the Chang'an Resident Office."
Zhao Jiu ignored the fact that it was Zhang Jun who sent the message to Chang'an garrison instead of Yuwen Xuzhong. He still found it hard to believe: "If he sent the message directly from Fangzhou City, wouldn't it be much faster than Ningzhou? The message sent this morning might be from the day before yesterday. It should be two days faster than Hu Yin's report last night."
"yes!"
"He was still in Fangzhou the day before yesterday?"
"yes!"
"Hold it?"
"Not only did they hold on, but they also won three consecutive battles, wounded 10,000 enemy soldiers, forced the enemy to change their generals, and fought back the day before yesterday, beheading 500 people and wounding thousands!" Zhang Jun stepped forward, unable to suppress his excitement. "Your Majesty, you should know Hu Yin. He is a rigid person. He must be particularly angry about his subordinates' false reports. Wu Jie may not dare to make false reports."
Zhao Jiu was completely stunned, and so was Liu Yan, who was beside him. If I remember correctly, this was probably the first time that the Song and Jin forces won a local battle with fewer troops, which was a miracle! Even when Li Yanxian recaptured Shanzhou, it was more of a strategic miracle.
So, it's simply unbelievable.
But then again, in this situation, whether it was winning consecutive victories, shooting and wounding tens of thousands of people, or going out of the city to counterattack and beheading five hundred people... In short, it didn't matter if these details were all fake, because the key issue was that it was difficult to fake the fact that Wu Jie was still in Fangzhou City the day before! It was probably true!
And those previous details seemed insignificant in the face of the overall situation where Fangzhou City was still controlled by Wu Jie.
By the same token, five hundred is a very strange number and is not in line with the tradition of the Western Army, but the key lies in another set of numbers.
"It is said that Wu Jie had four to five thousand soldiers when he retreated into Fangzhou City?" Zhao Jiu pondered over Hu Yin's daily report from the past few days and the geographical information he had seen on the map these days, slowly comparing them.
"Yes." Zhang Jun, who was standing aside, had an excellent memory.
"What does it mean that Lou Shi sent troops south to Baihe when Fangzhou City was so stable?" Zhao Jiu continued to think. "Is he sending troops to Baihe to prepare for Han Shizhong's northward support, so that he can attack the city with all his strength? Or is he abandoning Fangzhou City and going south directly along Baihe City? If so, how many troops should he leave to contain him?"
"No matter which one it is." Zhang Jun responded earnestly. "Your Majesty, Lou Shi has already divided his troops. At least one Wan Hu and four to five thousand real captives are missing! Moreover, the news will be verified within a few days!"
Zhao Jiu nodded slowly. This was what he cared about. Wu Jie was still holding out in Fangzhou City the day before, but on the same day, Yelu Ma Wu led dozens of his Khitan Mouke to appear in the lower reaches of Baihe River. These two iron facts combined with the objective geographical conditions could directly lead to a conclusion - that is, no matter which way Lou Shi wanted to take, he had actually divided his troops into an organized manner, and his core main force had been reduced by at least four to five thousand.
This is a very sensitive number.
"Have you sent scouts to Wu Jie?" Zhao Jiu came back to his senses and looked at him seriously.
"I have already sent them out without authorization." Zhang Jun was impatient. "Your Majesty, if Fangzhou holds on, Loushi divides its troops, and the Jin army in Hedong cannot cross the river for the time being, I think we can gather them together and annihilate them! One battle will decide the outcome!"
Zhao Jiu glanced at this confidant who had been in Bashu for so long that he had missed a lot of things. After thinking for a moment, he shook his head slightly: "Deyuan, Liu Yanxiu (Liu Ziyu) has his reasons. This is related to the life and death of the country. We must either have no choice or be fully confident. We can't gamble everything on it!"
Zhang Jun wanted to say something but hesitated, opened his mouth and was unable to speak, but ultimately remained speechless.
Besides, Zhang Jun’s thoughts can be understood without anyone telling him.
One reason was his personality, the other was his eagerness to show off... This attitude was that public was public and private was private, but the little bit of selfishness seemed insignificant after he donated his family property to serve his country.
"Pay close attention to the news and we'll discuss the battle later." Zhao Jiu said, but stood up and started shooting again.
Zhang Jun had no choice but to accept the order and leave.
In this way, the emperor and his ministers were unable to change the core strategy in Chang'an in a hurry... Of course, this is how it should be. The core strategy of a large-scale battle cannot be changed due to slight changes in the local battlefield.
The three-layer defense system based on Tongzhou as an area, Weishui as a line, and Chang'an as a point is still the original plan and bottom-line option for the current war.
However, the news that Wu Jie had probably saved Fangzhou City still brought great encouragement to Chang'an, especially after various news gradually came in...
That night, the report from the Fangzhou local officials and Hu Yinxin’s daily report arrived in Chang'an.
On the next day, which was the first day of May, the scouts sent by Chang'an brought back news of Wu Jie's resistance and counterattack in Fangzhou in the morning. The scouts claimed that they saw a large number of heads of real enemies. In addition, they also brought back news that the Jin army gave up the siege and left the main camp at Hekou to march south.
At this time, many people had wavered in their previous beliefs, and even Liu Ziyu remained silent.
By noon, Wu Jie had sent someone to deliver a handwritten account of the battle in Fangzhou City... Zhao Jiu no longer had any doubts about Wu Jie's record. He even became acutely aware that this general who had previously been ranked below Qu Duan and had suffered repeated defeats might very well be a general like Li Yanxian, who was misled and blinded by his own poor historical knowledge, and then relied on his talent to stand out.
Besides, Wu Jie's letter naturally included some words like "fortunately thanks to the power of heaven", but compared with these empty words, some descriptions that were obviously in line with the objective laws of the battlefield, some realistic words, combined with the irrefutable fact that he had defended Fangzhou City, were what made Emperor Zhao fully realize the essence of his other party's talents.
There aren’t many words like this, only three paragraphs, but they are enough.
One of them said: "Choose strong bows and powerful crossbows, shoot in turns, fire continuously, like raindrops and arrows like a constant stream of troops'... This talks about how to win specifically, and shooting in turns and suppressing firepower are too consistent with an ordinary college student's understanding of the winner on the battlefield.
The second one says: 'The Shenbi bow is the most useful. It is not capable of winning every battle, but it can be used to sweep the battlefield. Craftsmen are stationed in the camp to repair it overnight, otherwise the arrows cannot be replenished'... This talks about the danger of the battlefield and the restrictions on victory, and implies that the reason why Wu Jie chose to take the risk and attack was largely because he was worried about the shortage of crossbow arrows. He wanted to recover the crossbow arrows and repair them overnight in order to seize control of the battlefield.
The third one says: "The Jin people have four strengths: cavalry, perseverance, heavy armor, and bows and arrows. Therefore, we use the terrain to eliminate cavalry, the heat and repeated shooting to eliminate perseverance, and use the divine arm bow and crossbow to counter heavy armor and bows and arrows." This explains his overall strategy for this battle from the theoretical source, and also explains why he gave up Luojiao City before and why he chose to retreat to Fangzhou City to hold on.
To be fair, Zhao Jiu had never seen anyone else make such an excellent summary of the war... Han Shizhong and Zhang Rong were rough, Li Yanxian didn't do it either, and even Yue Fei didn't show anything similar! Qu Duan might have done it, because he was Wu Jie's superior, but his personality was a fatal flaw.
And this Wu Jie is undoubtedly better than Qu Duan, and is a great general like Han, Yue, Li, and Zhang!
On the second day of May, Han Shizhong sent a special express horse to report from the front line that countless Jin troops went down the Beiluo River and stationed in Baishui City. He sent people to capture the Jin cavalry and asked them clearly, saying that Wanyan Loushi, Wanyan Balisu and others had personally led the troops here, and there was also news about Tuhesu being injured and Salihe being defeated and staying behind. More importantly, there were definitely only about 30,000 Jin troops in Baishui City at that time!
At this point, no one doubted Fangzhou's great victory.
And there is no doubt that Wu Jie really relied on his 5,000 remnants to cause the Jin army to lose thousands of soldiers and split 4,000 to 5,000 troops... In other words, an ideal situation occurred. At the most critical moment, an unplanned person used the unplanned 5,000 remnants to exchange for 10,000 Jin army troops.
The whole Chang'an suddenly became bright.
That afternoon, at the military meeting held at the Prime Minister's Mansion in response to the new situation, the Privy Council had just marked the new battle situation on a simple clay plate. Before Liu Ziyu had time to make a few words of explanation, Liu Xi, the commander-in-chief of the three western routes, formally asked Zhao Jiu to lead the main force to attack directly and fight at Baishui.
"Officials."
Because it was a large military meeting with many participants, it was held in the shade of the trees in the backyard, and Liu Xi stood in front of a huge clay plate with his hands folded, and spoke passionately. "At this point, neither the enemy nor I have any special strategies to talk about. The battle in Guanxi is just a matter of settling accounts. Before, I thought that the Jin people were strong and one against three, so I thought that at least 120,000 or 30,000 troops would be enough to meet the enemy. Today, I still hold this view, but I also need 100,000 troops to take the initiative to meet the enemy and block the enemy from the plain. And now, there are 100,000 royal troops in Guanxi!"
I have to say that Liu Xi's remarks make sense.
The closer it gets to the showdown, the more everything seems like a simple math problem...but in its simplicity, it is extremely deadly.
The algorithm Liu Xi gave was the same as always, still one against three, so after discovering the change in the situation, he could vaguely solve the problem here, because there were really about 100,000 Song troops that could be mobilized in Guanxi... 40,000 troops in the central camp of the imperial camp, 40,000 troops in the three western routes of the western army plus 40,000 troops in Jingzhao, and Emperor Zhao had a trump card in his hand.
It's still not enough. No matter where it comes from, for example, from Qu Duan and Wu Lin who should reply soon, if we gather a little bit, we can get at least 100,000.
In fact, Liu Xi's move was soon echoed by many military officials. Except for his brother Liu Qi who did not participate to avoid suspicion, all the generals in Guanxi who were qualified to come here to "meet Prime Minister Yuwen" enthusiastically requested to fight.
Later on, even Wang Yuan, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Camp who had been working so hard on making clay plates, couldn't help but step forward to ask for a fight... This was his chance, the chance to turn the empty command of the Imperial Camp into a real one, and he was unwilling to give up even the slightest hope.
Seeing such an enthusiastic attitude, and the military miracle that Wu Jie had just created, Yuwen Xuzhong and Zhang Jun, who had been rejected by the emperor once before, also began to hesitate.
As for Emperor Zhao, he had no extra expression as usual. He just sat in front of the clay plate and listened quietly to the generals' words.
"I think it's not possible!" Just as these people finished expressing their opinions and Zhao Jiu was about to reply, Liu Ziyu, the chief secretary of the Privy Council, stood up with a dark face and spoke fiercely. "It's absolutely necessary. Please punish Liu Xi and Zhao Zhe as the two leading thieves, and behead them as a warning to future generations!"
The summer breeze was blowing and the shadows of the trees were mottled. Liu Xi, Zhao Zhe and several other generals of the Western Army were all stunned. Yuwen Xuzhong and Zhang Jun also shrank back.
Without waiting for these people to come to their senses and think of words to refute, Liu Ziyu bowed again and said something shocking:
"Your Majesty, how can these people serve the country or the emperor? They just saw Wu Jie's extraordinary achievements, and they were jealous and underestimated the enemy. They want to use the fate of the country to gain fame for themselves! Please don't be fooled by them!"
Zhao Jiu immediately shook his head and said, "Don't say these hurtful things... It doesn't matter if you have selfish motives, as long as you can win! On the contrary, if you can't win, your so-called public-spirited heart is nothing but a heart that harms the country... Yan Xiu, let's talk about the matter."
"Then let's talk about it. I think Liu Xi's calculation is wrong!"
As soon as the generals took a breath, Liu Ziyu continued to face them seriously. "Your Majesty, I only want to ask, if we send 100,000 troops to Baihe to block Loushi, what if Loushi holds out and waits for reinforcements? Even if Puzhen is blocked by Han Taiwei, when it comes to the decisive battle, the moment of life and death, can't the Jin army abandon the logistics and send reinforcements from Longmen Ferry to support 20,000 or 30,000 elite troops? And if we take Liu Xi, the general, as an example, one against three, where can we get the 60,000 or 70,000 troops to deal with these 20,000 or 30,000 Jin troops? Does Han Taiwei have to abandon Tongzhou? Then when the Jin army forces a crossing from Puzhen, and 100,000 or 80,000 come over, where can we find the remaining 200,000 or 300,000? Therefore, I say that Liu Xi and Zhao Zhe should be executed! I don't believe that they keep saying that they are three against one, but they can't think of this!"
There was silence in the courtyard. Zhao Zhe instinctively looked to Zhang Jun for help, but was glared back at. Liu Xi even knelt down on one knee and claimed that he was negligent and incompetent.
Seeing this, Zhao Zhe quickly bowed his head and apologized.
Zhao Jiu motioned the two generals to stand up, and at the same time he slowly shook his head at Liu Ziyu: "What Yanxiu (Liu Ziyu's pen name) said makes sense, but General Liu and his men cannot possibly have bad intentions... Let's discuss this later!"
Liu Ziyu couldn't say much and could only nod his head in agreement.
Just like that, because of Liu Ziyu's insistence and Emperor Zhao's ambiguous attitude, this military meeting ultimately could not change the general plan. In the end, the military meeting decided to let Wang Yan lead the Eight Character Army forward to set up formations in Pucheng, Meiyuan and Fuping areas to resist when the opportunity arises and to provide flank support for Han Shizhong.
The military meeting ended in failure.
After the military meeting, not to mention that everyone had their own destinations, Zhang Jun took the initiative to call his best friend Liu Ziyu as soon as he went out and invited him to ride in the same car.
"Yan Xiu, what you and Liu Xi calculated is not right!"
One in purple, the other in red, a pair of prominent old friends sat opposite each other in the mule cart, and Zhang Jun got straight to the point. "It can't be three to one! The Western Army is defending the country, with supplies piled up like a mountain, the emperor is personally leading the battle, and the morale is high, how can it be three to one? Wu Jie was in Fangzhou, was that three to one?"
"Three to one is what I said?"
Liu Ziyu was of course fearless in private with his friends, and he was also very angry, so he simply sneered. "Liu Xi said three to one. Who in Chang'an doesn't know that? Yuwen Xianggong is weak, and you and Hu Mingzhong are both unyielding. The three northern routes are Hu Mingzhong's territory, but the three western routes are your territory, and the Liu brothers are your private people! Therefore, even if Wu Jie can be used, it can only be said that the three northern routes of Shaanxi can be used. On the contrary, Liu Xi's statement confirmed that your three western routes are weak and can only fight three to one!"
Zhang Jun was also furious after being scolded by this, but he finally suppressed his anger and returned to the main topic: "Yan Xiu, do you really not know that Liu Xi is the leader of the Western Army. At the beginning, he was unwilling to fight when he saw that the situation was not good. He didn't know that the emperor was brave and brave, but thought that he could be bullied. So he deliberately said that his own army was weak?"
"How weak can it be?"
"I was confused too. If you didn't know, how could you calmly attack your shield with your own spear?" Zhang Jun regained his clarity and continued to fight. "Yan Xiu, now that things have come to this, I will not argue with you about three to one. Even if you and Liu Xi are both right, the troops of the three western routes are weak and can only fight three to one, but the weakest three to one is also three to one at the strongest? The imperial camp troops can't do two to one? Can't these soldiers brought by the emperor personally do one to one? One hundred thousand is enough! What's more, Qu Duan and Wu Lin are both organizing their troops. Maybe they can bring in another 10,000 or 20,000 from Jingyuan and Huanqing, and even replace Wu Jie! The troops are really sufficient!"
"So what?" Liu Ziyu continued to sneer.
"Then we can go to war! And we should go to war!" Zhang Jun said anxiously. "The emperor has entrusted us with the task of taking care of our son, so we must win this battle. With the opportunity ahead, how can we miss it? As his subjects, we must share the worries of the emperor and the world!"
Seeing his old friend's frankness, Liu Ziyu calmed down a lot, but he sighed and shook his head again: "Deyuan, let's not talk about Liu Xi's thoughts as a military leader. I know that you have another account in your mind, but do you know how I calculate the account in my mind?"
"How did you calculate it?" Zhang Jun also calmed down.
"That day, the Western Army of 200,000 was defeated by Loushi's 10,000 troops..." Liu Ziyu spoke without hesitation.
"If you say so, we might as well surrender!" Zhang Jun's face changed immediately after hearing only half of the sentence, and his breath became unstable, which directly startled the mule outside, causing the driver to quickly pull and shout. "Why don't you talk about the Jingkang Incident? If the emperor was in power that day, do you believe in the Jingkang Incident? The Jin people will not be able to cross the border!"
"That's not what I meant." Liu Ziyu was helpless. "What I meant was that having more soldiers and horses in a decisive battle is not necessarily a good thing... Because a big battle is different from a small battle. If you win a small battle, you win, and if you lose, you lose. But in a big battle, you must not make any mistakes or leaks, and the strange and the regular must intersect. The armies are fighting, spreading over dozens of miles, fighting non-stop. If there is a leak in one place, then there will be leaks everywhere. And this is the helplessness of weak troops attacking strong troops. If you want to defeat the strong with the weak, you have to use more to defeat the few. However, when you use more to attack the few, the more soldiers and horses you have, the more loopholes you will inevitably have. Once the weak troops are caught by the strong, the overall situation will be overturned..."
Zhang Jun thought for a moment and nodded slightly: "You have your own military calculations, and they make sense. I shouldn't have settled military scores with you from the beginning, but I have another calculation. Do you want to listen?"
Liu Ziyu's heart moved slightly, and he just raised his hand to signal.
"I don't understand military affairs, but I know that since the Mingdao Palace, the government and we have done a lot of things in the past three years, right?" Zhang Jun said calmly, but his eyes were fixed on the other party. "Can't we calculate this account from here?"
Liu Ziyu became solemn in an instant and gave up the intention of arguing with the other party, because he understood what the other party meant in an instant and understood from the bottom of his heart the way the other party settled accounts.
"In the past three years, whether it is military or political affairs, from the emperor down, we have always been working hard, right? We have always been lazy and idle, and have harmed the country and the people, right?" Zhang Jun did not stop because of the other party's solemnity. Not only that, as he continued to speak, his emotions gradually became excited. "Yan Xiu, I just want to ask you, whether it is the emperor or us, there are still many people, dead or alive, stupid or wise, demoted or retained, civil or military, are there still some people who have done something? And if what we have done is roughly right, then three years of hard work, three years of tolerance for the country, why can't the Song Dynasty regain its foothold?! Why should we let these barbarians force us, the emperor, and the Song Dynasty to this point?! Tell me the truth from the bottom of your heart, shouldn't we win this Guanxi battle?! Can't we settle the account this way?!"
Liu Ziyu was forced into a corner. He had no way to refute, nor did he want to refute. Instead, he suddenly asked a completely unrelated question: "Does Deyuan like archery?"
Zhang Jun forced himself to suppress his emotions: "I don't know how to do that at all."
"I like it, and the emperor likes it too." Liu Ziyu said seriously. "Archery is not only used to cultivate qi and practice martial arts, but the saints listed it as one of the six arts for a reason... First, it cultivates self-discipline, second, it determines the reception and release, and third, it seeks to choose... I am the chief secretary of the Privy Council and the military advisor for the emperor. I think about the war situation from Qingtang to Donghai all day long. It is a serious matter, and I always feel that I can't bear it. After coming to Chang'an, I am even more anxious. At this time, I will go to the military camp in the city to shoot arrows, and think about how to deal with it while shooting arrows. These days, I spend more and more time there. Sometimes I don't want to let go even when my arms ache."
"Yan Xiu has worked hard." Zhang Jun was obviously thinking of something. "But the emperor has also worked hard, and since you know that the emperor has worked hard..."
"That's not what I meant." Liu Ziyu shook his head. "I mean, although the emperor has worked hard, I'm afraid he has his own account in mind when he shoots arrows, and it is an account that only the emperor has, an account that we can't think of!"
Zhang Jun was suddenly stunned.
"You and I both think that Liu Xi, the military leader, has a terrible account. You also think that my account is not good enough, but it is possible that your account of doing your best and leaving fate to fate is not good enough for the government..." Liu Ziyu said earnestly. "So Deyuan, we each do our job, each keep our own account, and each hold our own opinions according to the situation. The government will make the decision!"
Zhang Jun was silent for a moment and nodded heavily.
But as soon as he nodded, the whole mule cart shook violently, causing the two of them to stagger inside the cart.
"What happened?" Zhang Jun was furious.
At the same time, Liu Ziyu instinctively grasped the sword at hand... The war was urgent, Zhang Jun was actually the entire Guanxi logistics manager, and Liu Ziyu himself was the chief military staff, so he had to guard against assassination.
But immediately, an attendant outside the mule cart reported: "The captain of the transport department and the military officer, there is no serious problem. It's just that there are too many new soldiers and horses outside the city, the intersection is endless, and the mule was driving too fast just now, so the order was lost for a while..."
This was a normal thing. In fact, the two of them had heard the sound of armor and horses before, but they just didn't pay attention to it. Now that the carriage had stopped, Zhang and Liu simply got out of the stuffy mule carriage together and took a breath.
However, as soon as the two got off the car, they were stunned, because there was an endless stream of soldiers and horses in front of them, with complete flags and armor... This is understandable, because foreign troops entering Chang'an naturally have to be dressed neatly to show their military might and combat effectiveness. It is also for this reason that they choose the evening when the summer heat is gradually dissipating... So the problem is not just that the flags and armor are complete, but that there are so many of them!
Not only were there a large number of them, but the armor rate seemed to be too high. At least half of them were cavalrymen wearing iron masks, and the other half were long-axe soldiers wearing iron masks. Moreover, whether they were riding or on foot, they were actually marching in neat formation. Along the street, there were cavalrymen on one side and long-axe infantrymen on the other side, with baggage carts in the middle. It was clearly extraordinary.
"What kind of troops are these?" Zhang Jun, who was dressed in purple robes, was stunned. "Where did they come from?"
"This is not a group of soldiers, this is an account." Liu Ziyu, wearing a red robe, clasped his hands and watched a young general walk past him with a large flag with the Chinese character "Zhang" on it, ignoring the purple-robed and red-robed officials watching him. He also saw a large flag with the Chinese character "田" on the other side of the street raised high, which revealed the truth in one sentence. "This is the account of Zhang Boying and Yue Pengju!"
