Chapter 59: The Battle of Pingzhou (11)

  The setting sun was like blood, and after the great war, the city of Taiyuan seemed even more solemn. When the victorious army entered Taiyuan City, the sporadic fighting in the city quickly came to an end. Occasionally, some Jin soldiers who were hiding in civilian homes wanted to put up a desperate resistance, but they were met with fierce hatred by the people of Taiyuan, who had long been resentful of the cruel Jin army. The civilians used wooden boards to block the doors and windows, and even set fire to their own houses, burning them down completely.

  Zhao Kan and others watched as Wanyan Honglie walked away, their eyes filled with coldness. Although the soldiers of the Changsheng Army didn't understand why they let a group of people go, these Jin people were considered to have backbone, iron bones, and the soldiers of the Changsheng Army still admired them in their hearts. Although the Changsheng Army hated the Jin people to the bone, military law was like a mountain, and all they could do was silently open up a path for them to leave.

  Zhao Yun rode his horse into the city of Taiyuan, only to find himself unable to proceed due to the corpses scattered all over the ground. Blood flowed like rivers, and Zhao Yun took a deep breath, feeling a pang in his heart. The war between Song and Jin had brought misery to the common people. Those who managed to hold onto their cities were lucky; at most, they would lose their able-bodied men on the city walls. But those who failed to defend their cities would suffer the fate of having their entire families slaughtered. This was the price of war - bloodshed, sacrifice, and an unchangeable reality.

  But those princes and nobles do not know the sufferings of the people, they act arbitrarily, bully the common people, no wonder there are so many people who rebel. If the world is peaceful, rich and safe, who would want to wear the hat of a rebel, shuttling back and forth in the dense forest, still having to worry about being surrounded by government troops at any moment."

  Zhao Kui and others dismounted and proceeded on foot. At this time, the soldiers of the Changsheng Army had already put down their swords and were searching for water to put out the fire. After the Jin army entered Taiyuan City, they began to plunder and kill recklessly, setting fires everywhere for fun. Perhaps in the hearts of the Jin people, what couldn't be taken away would be destroyed. Anyway, the Jin army wouldn't guard the cities they had conquered. This kind of bandit mentality had accumulated a huge blood debt in the cities conquered by the Song Dynasty.

  ZHAO KANG rolled up his sleeves, holding a water container and joined the soldiers to put out the fire. The imperial guards beside ZHAO KANG also rushed forward to join the firefighting efforts. Instantly, morale was boosted, and under the soldiers' efforts, flames in many areas slowly subsided, with blue smoke rising into the air.

  "Child, my child, who can quickly go and save him?" Suddenly, a woman's voice came from the alley not far away. Zhao Ding looked closely and saw that a house on fire was in danger of collapse. The woman wanted to rush into the sea of flames but was held back by her neighbors. Her face was covered with tears as she begged those around her, but the flames had almost engulfed the entire house. Several men tried to rush in but were forced back by the intense heat. The crowd was helpless because this alley was relatively remote and the Imperial Guard had not yet arrived.

  Zhao Kan quickly pulled out a black flag from the ground, pressed it into the water bucket beside him, and instantly soaked the flag. Zhao Kan didn't care about the wetness of the flag, wrapped it around his body, and rushed towards the alley at high speed. The imperial guards beside him turned their heads, found that Zhao Kan was gone, and saw him running into the alley from a distance. Everyone immediately rushed to chase after him, fearing that if anything happened to Zhao Kan, they would be held responsible.

  The woman had already exhausted herself, slumping to the ground in a heap, wailing loudly. The onlookers nearby couldn't help but feel pity, yet were powerless to do anything. Just then, a dark figure rushed over and charged into the fire scene. One person turned to another and said, "Did something just rush in?" Another replied, "It seemed like it. Could it be a ghost? How strange!"

  The man in front said, "Don't talk nonsense, it's broad daylight."

  When dozens of Imperial Guards rushed over panting, without seeing Zhao Jiong's figure, the leading Xiaojiao muttered to himself: "Where is that strange person?"

  The first villager who spoke up said: "It seems like something rushed in."

  The soldiers of the Imperial Forest Army were shocked, and a soldier stepped forward from behind: "How dare you, you dare to say that His Highness is an east-west thing."...

  The people were shocked and knelt down, saying: "General, spare our lives, it's not a thing, it's not a thing."

  "How dare you say that His Highness is not a good thing." The people of the Imperial Forest Army were all furious, with two eyes blazing with anger, one of them spoke out in indignation. If it weren't for Zhao's decree that they must be kind to the people, and that anyone who beats a commoner would be executed without pardon, they would have beaten this commoner to death early on.

  The people hastily knocked their heads and apologized, now they didn't dare to say a word, afraid of saying something wrong again. The people heard that the one who rushed into the fire scene just now was actually the noble prince, to be honest, the first reaction of these people was that it was impossible. The prince leading the army to come and rescue was already a great blessing, would he risk his own life for the people by rushing into the fire scene? But looking at the anxious soldiers in front of them, it didn't seem like a lie. The ninth son, the people were half-believing and half-doubting.

  Suddenly, a robust young man walked from afar, with a brisk pace, carrying two large buckets filled with clear water. His face was not red, nor was he out of breath. He had an elegant demeanor, wearing light armor and carrying a long spear on his back. His face was like jade, with sharp features, extremely heroic. As he approached, holding the two buckets in his hands, he said calmly: "You have time to bully the common people, why not hurry up and put out the fire?"

  The crowd immediately stood up and said: "General Yang, you've arrived, please think of a way to save Li's daughter in the house." This person didn't waste any words, put down one bucket of water, and poured another bucket towards the house, but the small amount of water was quickly engulfed by the flames. He told the surrounding crowd: "Quickly go find a source of water or sand to use for putting out the fire."

  The soldiers of the Imperial Forest Army were furious, just about to move forward, when suddenly a cold light flashed and the muzzle of a gun pointed at the forehead of one soldier. Everyone didn't see clearly when this person drew out the long gun, that soldier looking at the sharp muzzle in front of him, believed without hesitation, if he took another step forward, his brain would be pierced through absolutely.

  That young man coldly said: "If you have come to rescue the people of Taiyuan, then quickly save them. If you have come to show off your power, I am Yang Zaixing, and I will kill one person for every one I see."

  Cold sweat trickled down the face of the Imperial Guard soldier, this young man was like a sharp sword, as if he could pierce through everything, his breath was extremely icy, making people dizzy. The Imperial Guard soldiers drew their weapons and surrounded Yang Zai-xing in the middle. Yang Zai-xing was fearless, his eyes filled with murderous intent. From afar, the Changsheng Army, responsible for clearing out the city's Jin troops, arrived on the scene, hundreds of men surrounding Yang Zai-xing. Yang Zai-xing burst into loud laughter and said: "Even if you come ten times more, I, Yang Zai-xing, will not be afraid."

  Zhao Yan rushed into the sea of fire, his eyes filled with hot air rising from the high temperature, flames forming a high temperature that burned everything in the house. Zhao Yan wore a water-soaked flag on his body, which was relatively better off. He avoided several places where the fire was burning fiercely and crouched down to avoid the dense smoke produced. In many fires, people are not killed by burns, but by suffocation from the dense smoke. If one crouches down to avoid the high-lying smoke and covers their mouth and nose with a water-soaked object, the chances of escaping the fire scene increase by 50%.

  Zhao Meng dodged to the side, a huge beam fell down and hit the ground, flames quickly climbed up, making a "crackling" sound. Zhao Meng secretly called out in alarm, continuing to move forward quickly and carefully. When he entered a house, on the floor lay a young girl, her face pale, obviously due to inhaling large amounts of smoke. If not treated promptly, there would be danger to her life. Zhao Meng didn't care about male-female propriety, and bent down to give the girl artificial respiration.

  The girl's lips were extremely tender, and Zhao Jin's heart skipped a beat, but he scolded himself for being distracted at this critical moment. He quickly began performing CPR in earnest. The girl slowly came to, saw Zhao Jin right next to her, felt his "impropriety" and was both angry and embarrassed, but she was too weak to move, and tears rolled down from the corners of her eyes.

  Zhao Jian saw the anger and tears in the girl's eyes, silently cursing his bad luck. In his original world, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation was nothing out of the ordinary, everyone knew it was used to save people. But in ancient times, doing this would be considered truly improper, who would believe him if he explained? Zhao Jian silently cursed his bad luck, but now wasn't the time for explanations. He quickly got up, and after their lips parted, her mouth was left fragrant.

  Zhao Jian wrapped the flag around the girl's body, covering her head, and the girl burst into tears. This scoundrel still wanted to do something. Zhao Jian didn't know that the girl had cursed him countless times, even if he knew, he could only smile bitterly. Zhao Jian hugged the girl in his arms, fortunately, she was not heavy, and Zhao Jian could rush out of the fire scene at his original speed. He was scorched by the hot air flow, his eyebrows and hair were burned off, and there were many burns on his body. Zhao Jian endured the pain, suddenly rushed forward, and instantly broke through the sea of flames.

  "Stop right there!" he shouted at the crowd with swords drawn and bows taut.