Chapter 10: The Change of Heart

  The silver-white moonlight shrouded the gloomy forest, the sound of horseshoes echoed in the thicket, the shouting shook the sky, a cavalry unit swarmed into Zhao Wei's main camp, chopping and killing while shouting: "By order of Fuzhou Mu, the Bashan army will annihilate the rebels, kill!"

  In the torchlight, Zhao's army finally saw clearly the banner of the approaching army, on which was written a large "Pang" character.

  "It's the Brazilian general, Pong Yu!" someone shouted loudly. In the dark of night, it was impossible to tell how many people were there, but the cavalry charge was extremely fierce. The main camp of Zhao Wei was in a state of great chaos, soldiers rushed out of their tents, and before they could find their commander, they were scattered by the cavalry, lances pierced through chests, and there were cries of despair everywhere.

  Zhaoyi and Li Yi hastily came out of the camp, Zhaoyi was furious and resentfully said: "Pang Xi is a petty person, he accepted my heavy gift, but sent troops to attack me. When I enter Chengdu, I will make him pay."

  Li Yi frowned and said to Zhao Wei: "Sir, Pang Xi has a large number of troops under his command. If he sends reinforcements to aid Liu Zhang, the threat will be great. Now that our camp is scattered, let's retreat to Dongcheng quickly. There are many soldiers in Pang Le's army, as long as we stabilize the military morale, even if Pang Xi relies on Liu Zhang, our forces will still have the upper hand."

  "That's right, you're absolutely right." Zhao Wei listened to Li Yi's words and immediately came to his senses. He gathered his personal troops and fled towards the East City. Halfway through, he met Deng Xian. Zhao Wei was overjoyed when he saw him and said: "General Deng, Pang Hui is attacking me. Quickly lead your troops to block Pang Hui's cavalry and cover my retreat."

  Deng Xian coldly drew his sword and shouted: "Zhao Wei, you betrayed your lord, your crime is unforgivable. I, Deng Xian, will avenge my master today and kill you."

  Leading the troops to kill, the soldiers under his command, covered in blood, became vigorous and shouted as they killed towards Zhao Wei's troops. Zhao Wei was shocked and lost color, whipping his horse to charge out sideways, fiercely chopping and killing for a while, more than half of his personal guards were killed by Deng Xian, Zhao Wei escaped with only dozens of personal guards, Deng Xian pursued relentlessly.

  The sound of horseshoes echoed, the earth shook, and Deng Xian took a look under the moonlight, finally recognizing the general who came, surprisingly it was Lei Tong, a great general under Zhang Ren's command.

  Two colleagues for many years, familiar with each other, Leitong led the cavalry to kill, looking at the front fighting, not distinguishing between enemy and ourselves. At this time, I saw Dengxian coming up, and they were both delighted to see each other. They told each other about their original intentions, and Dengxian only knew that Leitong was ordered by his master Liu Zhang to lead all the cavalry in Chengdu, a total of 4,000 cavalrymen, to roam outside Fucheng, just wanting to give Zhao Wei a fatal blow at night.

  Zhang Song mixed in with Deng Xian's army and heard Lei Tong say this, only then did he realize that Liu Zhang had long been prepared. Lei Tong led so many cavalrymen to charge into Zhao Wei's army at midnight, also bearing the flag of Pa Xi Taishou Pang Yi, which would certainly cause great chaos among Zhao Wei's troops. It seems that Deng Xian was unable to kill Zhao Wei, and this plan to pretend to surrender had become superfluous.

  The two armies converged, and Deng Xian's infantry made way for a road. Leigong led the cavalry to continue pursuing Zhao Wei. Along the way, there were remnants of Zhao's army that fought to the death in resistance, but they were all broken through by the cavalry. Zhao Wei fled with dozens of his personal guards, only hearing the sound of the wind and the cry of cranes, and lost his direction in the end.

  The remaining three rebel cities, upon learning that their main camp had been defeated, rushed to provide reinforcements. Lei Tong led his cavalry in a fierce charge through the night, causing heavy casualties among the Zhao forces. Tens of thousands of Zhao soldiers were thrown into chaos by the charging of the 4,000-strong cavalry, and Lei Tong pursued Zhao Wei relentlessly, breaking through dozens of waves of Zhao troops who tried to block him, until he finally forced Zhao Wei into a river valley.

  "Heaven is destroying me." Zhao Wei sighed, looking up at the sky as the cavalry was about to charge over. Afraid of becoming a puddle of flesh under the horses' hooves, he wanted to draw his sword and kill himself, but Li Yi and the soldiers struggled to hold him back. Just then, another group of cavalry arrived, with their commander shouting: "Don't worry, my lord, Pang Hua is here!"

  Pang Le led Zhao Jun's three thousand cavalry to kill, and clashed fiercely with Lei Tong's cavalry. Zhao Wei was overjoyed and hastily merged the infantry with Li Yi from the side to escape. Outside, there were also Zhao Jun's infantry rushing to come, and Zhao Wei fled to the east city under the support of the troops and horses.

  Unable to kill Zhao Yun, he felt unfulfilled but could do nothing about it. Following Liu Zhang's orders in Chengdu not to engage in a fierce battle with Pang Tong, he led his cavalry to retreat from the battlefield and flee into the darkness.

  Zhao Wei returned to the Dongcheng camp, still shaken. Li Yi stepped forward and said: "My lord, now that our four major camps are in disarray, you should quickly concentrate your troops. Once our soldiers gather, we can launch a night attack on the city. That cavalry unit must be Pang Hui's vanguard. We must capture Fucheng before Pang Hui's main force arrives."

  Zhaoyi immediately issued an order, and the troops outside the south, north, and west cities converged on the large camp in the east city. Over a hundred messengers rushed out of the camp in all directions, urging their horses into the moonlit night.

  After receiving the order, Zhao Jun's various units rushed to Dongcheng, while Lei Tong led his cavalry to launch surprise attacks on these infantry advancing in the moonlight, causing heavy casualties for the Zhao army. By midnight, when Zhao Wei counted his troops, the 50,000-strong army had been reduced to just 30,000, with the remaining half of the soldiers scattered around Fucheng and becoming stray soldiers.

  "Abominable Pang Tong, abominable Deng Xian, abominable Liu Zhang, they are going to be the death of me!" Zhao Wei raged in his tent.

  "We can't afford to wait any longer, Your Excellency. Please give the order to attack the city immediately. Our 30,000 troops are still far more than the defenders of Fu City." Li Yi remonstrated.

  "Alright, pass down the order. All troops will be divided into six batches, with 5,000 men in each batch. One batch will garrison the main camp and work together with the cavalry to defend against Pang Xi's cavalry attack. One batch will serve as a supervisory team. The remaining four batches will take turns attacking the city, but they must not retreat. The supervisory team will behead anyone who disobeys orders without exception. If we fail to capture the city by dawn, all generals will be punished according to military law."

  "Yes." Li replied loudly.

  The rebels began attacking the city again, and their momentum was even more fierce than during the day. Liu Zhang stood quietly on top of the city wall.

  Zhang Ren had concentrated most of his troops in the eastern city, but even with the original garrison of Fucheng, there were only over 3,000 men left to resist the rotating attacks of 20,000 men. The pressure was great, and Liu Zhang personally went to the city head to direct the battle. Seeing the enemy army constantly charging up, being killed by soldiers again and again, while the number of soldiers on the city wall became fewer and fewer, he couldn't help but feel a little worried.

  "On the other side, Fa Zheng said: 'My lord need not worry, these rebel troops seem to be fiercely attacking, but in reality they are at the end of their strength. My lord's clever plan will make them exhausted all night, as long as we can withstand their attack for two hours, these rebel troops will collapse like a landslide, and no matter how many troops they have, they will be lambs waiting to be slaughtered.'"

  "I'm afraid we won't last two hours." Liu Zhang sighed, Zhao Wei's rebel army was numerous and had been fighting for many years. Under the pressure of their commander, they were all desperate men. Although the city walls were guarded by the elite troops of Chengdu, with arrows and crossbow bolts being used without end, there were simply too few of them. Looking at the situation, it wasn't just two hours, even one hour would be unsustainable.

  Fa Zheng saw Liu Zhang's worry and bowed his head: "Your Excellency, I have a suggestion."

  "Say."

  "Now our forces are weak, and defending the four cities is even more empty. It's better to withdraw our troops and retreat into the inner city. Together with the Fucheng army, we have nearly 4,000 people. Zhao Wei's army takes over the defense of the outer city of Fucheng, and the main force is exhausted. It is absolutely impossible to take the inner city in a short time. We can send an envoy to rush to Bazhou for help overnight."

  Liu Zhang said quietly: "Governor of Baishi, Pang Xi, sits on a mountain watching tigers fight, will he come to rescue?"

  Fa Zheng smiled slightly and said, "It's precisely because Pang Hui wants to reap the benefits of the fishermen that he will definitely come to aid. As long as the lord grants him heavy profits and appoints him as the Conquering West General, governing all the troops in northern Yi Province, Pang Hui will not be willing to let Zhao Wei take over Fu City and occupy Chengdu, monopolizing power for himself."

  Although Pang Xi's military strength is not as good as Zhao Wei's, Zhao Wei has been attacking the city day and night and his forces are already exhausted. When Pang Xi's main force arrives, he will surely heavily defeat Zhao Wei's army and at the same time create a deep hatred between Zhao Wei and himself. Later, when Your Excellency pardons Zhao Wei's crimes, you can use him to counterbalance Pang Xi, and still safely occupy Chengdu. With General Zhang Ren as your good general, and with me exerting all my efforts below, I guarantee that within three years, we will surely eliminate the villainous Zhao Wei and Pang Xi."

  Liu Zhang smiled lightly, and Fa Zheng indeed had a clever plan to turn the tables in this desperate situation. He said calmly, "Now that the city of Fu is surrounded by Zhao Wei's chaotic soldiers, it's very risky to leave the city. Who can be sent as an envoy?"

  "In the future, I will definitely go." Fa Zheng bowed and said.

  Liu Zhang let out a light breath, gazing at the distant darkness, silent for a long time, before firmly saying: "Not allowed."

  Fa Zheng's face turned cold, a look of disappointment on his face, he forced a bitter smile and said in a disheartened tone: "So the lord still doesn't trust me, thinking that I, Fa Zheng, want to surrender to Pang Tong and betray him?"

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