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Chapter 100: Xiangyangs Sudden Change

  Chapter 100: Xiangyang's Sudden Change

  On the official road north of Zichuan, a long line of carriages stretching over two miles was hurrying along.

  Because of the delay in Zhaizhou Prefecture this morning due to Huang Xiuli's affairs, the grain convoy led by Yue Yun had only traveled more than 20 miles before it was already noon.

  Yue Yun gazed up at the scorching sun above, licked his parched lips. He pointed to a teahouse at the fork in the road ahead with his whip and said: "Brothers, let's take a break at that teahouse up ahead, have some tea, eat lunch, and then continue on our journey!"

  The soldiers and drivers all cheered, they were also a bit thirsty and tired.

  The owner of the tea house was also startled by the sudden arrival of so many soldiers, and hastily served tea and water, fearing that he would be slow to serve these big-headed soldiers.

  Yue Yun and his group were simply too numerous; although he was extremely busy, he could only pour tea for the few tables of military officers sitting in the teahouse.

  Yue Yun took a sip of tea, feeling the refreshing taste, and asked Cheng Min: "General Cheng, how far is it from here to Yuan City?"

  "It's probably over a hundred miles away. At this speed, we should be able to reach it by the night after tomorrow." Cheng Min put down his teacup and replied.

  Yue Yun's eyebrows slightly furrowed, in that case, it's estimated that it will take at least nine days to reach Zhuxian Town.

  Just then, a sudden horseshoe sound came from the west side of the official road. A brown war horse, panting heavily, was carrying a knight wearing a green cuirass towards this teahouse.

  Because the tea house was surrounded by soldiers of the Beiwei army sitting on the ground, this horse rushed over and knocked down several people at once.

  "Where did this barbarian come from? He actually dares to charge at our people!"

  He said and strode forward in big strides, grabbed the reins in front of the horse's head, held his breath and forcibly pulled the horse to a stop, shouting: "Don't you have eyes when riding on the road? Seeing so many people still rushing over!"

  It was only then that he discovered the knight slumped over his horse's back, covered in wounds and still dripping with fresh blood, having long since passed out.

  The cow was startled in its heart and hastily lifted up his body to take a look, but exclaimed in shock: "Dad?"

  He immediately turned back and loudly cried out: "Young Master Yue, my father has been beaten unconscious..."

  Inside the teahouse, the owner offered his own small bed for Niu Gao to lie on and rest.

  Yue Yun, Yu Yunwen, Guan Ling, Niu Tong, Cheng Min and others stood solemnly in front of his bed, listening to Niu Gao recounting his experience with Tang Huai borrowing grain from Xiangyang after he had just been rescued.

  The wounds on Niu Gao's body had all been bandaged with gauze. He said with a sorrowful expression: "We arrived in Xiangyang in early August and saw that the official granary was full of grain, but the governor of Xiangyang, Tian Shizhong, was strolling around inside the city, not paying attention to anything. When we met him, he was still drinking and having fun with several singing girls. He only became somewhat flustered when he saw us coming..."

  It turned out that after Tang Huai and Niu Gao arrived in Xiangyang, Tian Shizhong was still relatively cooperative at first, although he also secretly set up some obstacles, sometimes saying that there were not enough large carts, and sometimes saying that they could not hire enough carters. However, he still agreed to issue the grain. But just eight days before Niu Gao's departure, Tian Shizhong suddenly sent troops to intercept them all, claiming that the grain had other urgent uses and could not be taken away by Tang Huai and Niu Gao.

  This time, they were anxious, Zhu Xian Town had so many soldiers and civilians waiting to eat, how could they not transport grain?

  They then had a dispute with Tian Shizhong, and Niu Gao's temper was very violent, and he soon started fighting with Tian Shizhong, and slapped him several times.

  Tian Shiming immediately became enraged and ordered his soldiers to take down Tang Huai and Niu Gao with knives and guns.

  Due to the large number of troops in Tian Shiming's army, they were well-prepared and brought bows, crossbows, long spears, and ropes. Tang Huai was quickly knocked down and captured, while more than a thousand of their soldiers were injured and had their weapons confiscated.

  Niú Gāo's martial arts skills were quite high, and ordinary soldiers couldn't take him down. Seeing that the situation was not good, he took advantage of the fact that Tian Shiming's men weren't paying attention and led a few loyal soldiers to escape. He finally managed to get out of danger.

  "How dare this old scoundrel seize my father and Uncle Tang?! No way, I'm going to rescue Uncle Tang!" Niu Tong's eyes turned red as soon as he heard the news, and he shouted loudly. He picked up his big axe and was about to mount his horse.

  Niu Tong's old man Niu Gao is a big roughneck, with a stick-like personality, and he won't take care of his own son. And Niu Tong's mother died early, so in his childhood, he was basically raised by Tang Huai and his wife.

  Yue Yun hastily pulled him back, saying coldly: "Niu Tong, don't be impulsive! Let's figure out the reason first and then go together! This Tian Shi Zhong dares to treat my Yue family army like this, I will not let him off lightly!"

  His words finally calmed Niu Tong down a bit.

  Yue Yun furrowed his brow, looking somewhat perplexed, and asked: "Uncle Niu, you said you brought several personal guards to escape, so where are they?"

  Earlier, when he saw Niu Gao injured, he thought that Niu Gao had encountered a group of Jin soldiers who had infiltrated deep into Song territory and were ambushing him. So, Yue Yun sent Guan Ling to lead a search party in all directions, but they didn't find any other suspicious people again.

  "They... " Niu Gao heard these words, but let out a loud wail: "They... they went in another direction... it was all thanks to one of them wearing my armor and attracting the enemy's attention that I was able to escape."

  "What? Father, Tian Shizhong actually sent someone to kill you?" Niu Tong exclaimed in shock and anger.

  This time it's not just Niu Tong, everyone present is furious.

  In the military, it is not uncommon for leaders and soldiers of different units to have disagreements and engage in fierce fights, but generally, after the fight, things are settled. However, this time, after the fight, they disarmed and detained all the opposing personnel, even sending people to hunt down and kill them, as if trying to ensure that no one escapes, which is unprecedented.

  Yu Yunwen then turned to Niu Gao and asked, "General Niu, may I ask how you ended up near Cai Prefecture? If you were returning from Xiangyang to Zhu Xian Town, shouldn't you have headed north directly through Dengzhou?"

  "Great Master, who is this..." Niu Gao had never seen Yu Yunwen before and asked with some confusion.

  "Ah, Uncle Niu, this is my new aide Yu Yunwen. He's incredibly intelligent and has been a great help on our trip to Chu State, coming up with all sorts of clever strategies behind the scenes. His abilities are truly impressive."

  "Oh, I see." Niu Gao finally felt at ease and said in a low voice: "Tian Shiming's action this time must have been well-prepared. After I escaped from Xiangyang, I was also planning to head north, but I didn't go far before I encountered his interceptors. Luckily, one of my loyal soldiers wore my armor and led them away."

  He took a sip of water and continued: "Then I arrived at a nearby town, where I heard from passing merchants that the roads north of Xiangyang were all guarded by checkpoints, apparently looking for someone with a sturdy build, dark face, and big beard. At this point, I didn't dare to head north again, so I took a detour east, planning to take the road through Cai Prefecture. Who would have thought that the eastern route was also blocked by Yang Bosun, deputy general of Tian Shichen's army? Fortunately, most of these soldiers were former military men and not part of Tian Shichen's main force. When Yang Bosun ordered his men to shoot arrows at me, they deliberately missed their mark, and when they attacked me, they pretended to be defeated; otherwise, how could I have escaped the encirclement?"

  Niu Gao's words made everyone present look serious. Tian Shizhong was too bold, daring to intercept Niu Gao who held a higher position than him, which was no different from openly defying authority. Moreover, the most crucial point was that he still controlled the tens of millions of stones of grain stored by the Yue family army in Xiangyang, this was the ** of the Yue family army!

  Yue Yun, as a general who participated in the grain discussion meeting, was even more aware of the importance of these tens of millions of stones of grain to the Yue family army. Now I'm afraid that the grain in Zhuxiantun has already been depleted, and if the grain from Xiangyang is not transported up, I'm afraid that over a million soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians will all starve to death.

  Yue Yun's mind turned quickly, and if he sent a fast horse to Zhu Xian Town to find Yue Fei, and then had him send Zhang Xian or Wang Gui, high-ranking generals in the army, to lead elite troops to Xiangyang, it would take at least half a month for them to make the round trip.

  And even if everything goes smoothly and the Tian Shizhong issue is resolved, by the time the grain from Xiangyang arrives at Zhuxiantown, I'm afraid people will have starved to death. It seems that another plan must be devised.

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