Chapter 358: The Death of Celebration (Part 2)

Outside Sishui City, Ma Dawei personally led thousands of guards to welcome Cui Qinggong's arrival. The scout reported that Cui Qing led 10,000 cavalrymen to come. Now three miles away, Cui Qinggong finally arrived. Ma Dawei's heart began to become nervous. He looked at Ma Siyi, who was calm next to him, and asked in a low voice: "Have you arranged it?"

Ma Siyi smiled coldly and said, "Please rest assured, we have made precise arrangements, and Cui Qinggong will definitely not escape this time."

He put his hand on the curtain and stared into the distance for a moment. He saw a black line vaguely visible, and then said to Ma Dawei: "General, since Cui Qinggong has arrived, I will prepare first."

Ma Dawei took a deep breath and immediately urged Ma to welcome Cui Qinggong's army. Success or failure was the first to take place.

After three days of marching, Cui Qinggong finally arrived at his destination. The wall of Sishui City was faintly looking at it. Thinking of the long-awaited gunpowder, his emotions began to rise. After a few days of marching, he felt depressed and swept away. From a distance, hundreds of cavalry were rushing towards him. Cui Qinggong saw Ma Dawei in the front at one glance. A sharp eagle eyes flashed with a hint of killing. He wanted to kill Ma Dawei at this time, just like taking a piece of food. Ma Dawei was not afraid?

But his murderous intent was temporarily suppressed. Now is not the time to kill him. Ten thousand cavalry were overwhelming, and the flags were flying in the cold wind.

Ma Dawei turned over and dismounted, and walked forward alone. Under the gaze of a 10,000 army, he respectfully bowed to Cui Qinggong, "I will meet with the general!"

"Do you still think I am your boss?" Cui Qinggong's cold voice continued in the wind.

"I dare not, I have always been loyal to the general."

"You dare to bully me!" Cui Qinggong pointed at him with a horse whip and shouted loudly: "You have developed gunpowder but don't contribute to me. Where is your loyalty?"

"The subordinates have no intention of hiding it. The gunpowder has just been successful and it still needs to be tested many times. After the stability is stable, my subordinates will definitely offer it to the commander."

Cui Qinggong glanced at him sideways without saying a word. At this moment, the wilderness was quiet. Only the wind whistled through the human wall. I don’t know how long it took, but the sweat on Ma Dawei’s forehead slowly rolled down. Then he heard Cui Qinggong snorting coldly: “I don’t have the courage, so take me to see your gunpowder!”

"It's a secret matter. Please follow me into the city."

Sishui City has always been a major military city on the south bank of the Yellow River. Its city is deep and vast, and it looks extremely tall and sturdy. Sishui, which flows from the south, continues to flow to the Yellow River.

There were not many people in the Sishui City, with only more than a few hundred households. In the chilly cold wind, nearly 2,000 cavalry guarded Cui Qinggong slowly entering the city, while the rest of the army was stationed outside the city, ready to wait for the call.

At this moment, just above the city wall, dozens of soldiers were watching Cui Qinggong's army enter the city nervously. A small stone throwing tool was placed beside them, and a huge black pot was quietly waiting for the opportunity to come.

In addition, nearly ten thousand crossbowmen were lying densely on the city walls. They were lying on the top of the city, so nervous that they almost stopped breathing.

At this moment, hundreds of vanguards of cavalry had entered the city. Seeing Cui Qinggong's banner disappearing under the city, he had already crossed the suspension bridge and entered the city cave. The stone throwing tools on the city began to slowly fill up. A soldier held the lit torch, waiting for the final order.

Ma Dawei accompanied Cui Qinggong through the suspension bridge and began to enter the city cave. He began to speak less and was nervously waiting for the opportunity to escape. There was no sound of speaking in the dark city cave. Only the sound of horse hooves were heard. Cui Qinggong seemed to feel a nervous atmosphere. He glanced at Ma Dawei beside him, and saw that he was calm and still maintained a respectful attitude. Cui Qinggong's heart was slightly relieved.

The eyes lit up again. They had already passed through the city cave and entered the Wengcheng. Wengcheng was a patio in the main city gate, with two city gates in front and behind, surrounded by tall city walls.

At this time, Cui Qinggong suddenly saw a small stone tower beside the wall of the city wall. The stone tower was painted red and extremely dazzling. Two soldiers guarded one from left to right, and there was a black porcelain ball on the stone tower. The entire stone tower was like an altar, with a strange shape. He was full of strong curiosity and asked, "What is this?"

Ma Dawei immediately bowed and replied, "The black porcelain ball is the Longyou Army thunder bullet we imitated. Are you interested in watching it?"

Cui Qinggong was very interested, so he nodded and said happily: "Take it to me!"

Ma Dawei agreed and rode his horse towards the stone tower. At this time, his heart was so nervous that he was about to jump out. The stone tower was about fifty steps away from Cui Qinggong, and he arrived at the horse. When he was about ten steps away from the stone tower, Ma Dawei waved his hand and ordered loudly: "Take off the thunder bullet!"

This was the order to start. As soon as he finished speaking, he saw the same black porcelain ball throwing from the top of the city to the outside of the suspension bridge. White smoke was violently emitted from the outside of the city. A shocking explosion came from outside the city, like thunder. It could be heard dozens of miles away. A stream of black smoke rose into the air. The cavalry inside and outside the city were in chaos. The war horses neighed in fear and ran away. Cui Qinggong's cavalry was in chaos.

The cavalry in the urn city were also stunned by the explosion. Everyone looked out of the city cave. As the explosion had just subsided, the change occurred. The suspension bridge slowly pulled up and the city gate rumbled and closed, "Not good!" Cui Qinggong immediately realized that he had been fooled. He suddenly thought of something and turned his head to look at Ma Dawei. He was so shocked that he almost fell off his horse.

I saw that the stone tower had been removed at some point. Behind it was a dark wall hole, a huge stone gate was slowly falling, Ma Dawei's war horse was still there, but his people were gone.

"Get out of the city!" Cui Qinggong hissed, but it was too late. With a clapper, the arrows on the surrounding city walls were like rainstorms, shooting down the sky and earth. The sky above the city city suddenly turned into darkness.

On February 20, the second year of Yong'an, Cui Qinggong, a hero of a generation, died in Sishui City.

At the same time Cui Qinggong entered the city, on the north bank of the Yellow River opposite the Sishui City, Zhang Huanzheng was quietly waiting for news from the other side. His large group of troops had already advanced to Shangdang the day before yesterday to fight against the Uighurs and Khitan coalition forces, and there were only five thousand personal guards left in the camp.

Since he sent troops from Longyou, his army has never crossed the Yellow River, and his strategic focus is not on Cui Qinggong. In his opinion, Cui Qinggong has no three, regardless of the time, place or people. He only has a little fortune and is rampant for a while and is not worthy of fighting with him. His strategic focus is still in Hebei. No matter whether Pei You and Tuoba Qianli fight are victorious or lost, he has excuses to march into Hebei, and more importantly, Pei Jun's death. Just like the death of his own family head, no one in Hebei can stop his Zhang Huan army from heading north.

At this moment, Zhang Huan was sitting in the camp reading a book. According to the information sent by the scouts on the other side, Cui Qinggong should have arrived in Sishui today. In other words, news would come at any time. Suddenly, he seemed to hear something. Zhang Huan immediately put down the book and stood up and walked out of the tent. When he lifted the curtain, he saw a soldier running towards him with excitement on his face.

"The Governor, the explosion of gunpowder came from the direction of Sishui City on the other side."

Finally, Zhang Huan couldn't help but feel excited. He turned over and smiled at the soldiers and said, "Let's go! Go to the Yellow River and take a look."

The Daying was only three or four miles away from the Yellow River. Nearly a thousand cavalrymen surrounded Zhang Huan and rushed to the bank of the Yellow River like lightning. At this moment, the river water had completely thawed, and there were ice cubes of large and small floating on the river surface, flowing slowly towards the east.

The river surface in this area is extremely wide, with a dozen miles away on the other side. There is also a small island in the middle of the river. A large group of gulls and herons returning from the south live on the island. There are no ships on the vast river surface, only groups of white herons hovering on the river surface foraging.

Zhang Huan immediately stared at the direction of Sishui City on the shore. Although he could not see the situation in the city, he believed that Cui Qinggong would not be able to escape the fate of destruction this time.

The river style on the shore is cold and cold outside, mixed with a unique fishy smell of the river. The wind is fierce, blowing the poplar trees by the river rustling. Zhang Huan has been waiting by the river for nearly an hour, but there is still no news, but he is still motionless and has a cold face, just like a stone sculpture.

"Governor, will it be..." A personal lieutenant beside him finally couldn't hold back his anger.

Zhang Huan waved his hand to stop his words. At this moment, a few small red dots had appeared in his eyes, and a smile finally appeared on his face, which had been as cold as a rock, "The news is coming!"

A burst of cheers suddenly broke out on the river bank, and more than a dozen red dots appeared on the vast river surface. This was a method of communication invented by Zhang Huan in Anxi, dyeing the goshawks red. As long as they soared into the air, it would mean the arrival of victory.

"Cui Qinggong, it's a pity that I can't see you for the last time." Zhang Huan murmured and smiled.

He suddenly turned his horse's head and ordered his personal soldiers: "I'll order the entire army to set off and march towards Hebei."

After Cui Qinggong died, the cavalry brigade he brought began to attack Sishui City frantically, but in front of the tall and majestic city wall, they were helpless. At this moment, tens of thousands of troops of Ma Dawei came from all directions and attacked inside and outside. Cui Qinggong's troops were defeated, and countless surrendered people were defeated. Only a very small number of the remaining troops fled back to Luoyang. Ma Dawei then formally sent people to Chenliu to ask Zhang Huanjun for surrender.

On February 22, Zhang Huan's general Lin Jiuhan led 40,000 Longyou Army to come from Chenliu and arrived in Xingyang to accept Ma Dawei's surrender. At the same time, Chu Xingshui personally led 60,000 Huainan Army to reach Mi County south of Xingyang, while the 50,000 troops of Li Shuangyu's troops in Xiangyang headed north along the Ru River and occupied Liang County in Linru County on the 24th. Almost on the same day, Li Baozhen, stationed in Shaanxi County, also received the order from Zhang Huan and raised an army to march eastward.

More than 200,000 troops cut off the retreat of the Luoyang rebels from the east, south and west.

The situation in Luoyang City was still calm, and the news that Cui Qinggong was dead was strictly blocked. The remnants of the army fled from Sishui had been intercepted by the troops sent by Zhu Tao in advance to prevent the news they brought to disintegrate the morale of the army.

In the Luoyang Palace, Zhu Tao was nervously discussing countermeasures with Cui Qinggong's second son Cui Ming. Cui Qinggong had five sons in total. The eldest son Cui Xiong had become an abolished person. The second son Cui Ming was 23 years old this year. He was born to Cui Qinggong's concubine. The other sons were also concubines and were all young. It was not enough to entrust major events, so Cui Ming became Cui Qinggong's only heir.

Perhaps because his eldest son Cui Xiong had already followed Wu, Cui Qinggong attached great importance to the cultivation of his second son's literature. He asked famous scholars to teach him knowledge since he was a child. When he grew up, he asked him to follow the army to process official documents and stay with him.

This time Cui Qinggong went to Sishui and handed over military power to his son. Cui Ming received the news of his father's death. In addition to grief, he was also a little panicked. Although he had commanded the army for his father, it was not the same time. In addition, he was still young, and under the serious situation, he didn't know how to deal with this situation, so he placed all his hopes on his master Zhu Tao.

"Young prince, don't worry, things are not at the worst, we still have a chance." Zhu Tao comforted his little lord like a father and brother.

Cui Ming shook his head and said, "How could I not worry? Zhang Huan's army will definitely take the opportunity to launch an attack. Once the matter of my father spreads, how can we still resist it? Why don't we just ask the Empress Dowager to surrender, at least we can retain some of our strength."

The only way Cui Ming can think of now is to surrender to his aunt, and perhaps there is still a way out.

Zhu Tao did not answer his words immediately. He pondered for a moment and said, "This may be our last step, but it is definitely not an urgent matter. The urgent matter is not Zhang Huan's attack. I am worried that Li Shidao will take the opportunity to attack. We must take the initiative before he attacks, otherwise he will break into Luoyang and we will have no way to survive."

Cui Ming's face turned pale in an instant, and Li Shidao was cruel and vicious. If it fell into his hands, his own consequences would be.

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He shivered all over his body, and quickly bowed to Zhu Tao and said, "The master is in charge of this matter, and I have no objection."

"Now we can only work together to overcome the difficulties." Zhu Tao pondered for a moment and proposed his own solution. "We can divide the work and cooperate. I will stay in Luoyang to defend the foundation. The little prince will deal with Li Shidao. Without further ado, the little prince can lead troops to fight overnight."

"But I have never led troops to fight." Cui Ming glanced at Zhu Tao with a timid look and said, "It's better for me to stay in Luoyang and the master will deal with Li Shidao."
Chapter completed!