The Ugly Empress《丑娘娘》Chou Niang Niang
The Ugly Empress, Chapter 59, vol 2 Chapter 14: Dead water
Teng Yun made great contributions. Emperor Xue sent people to give them wine and meat rewards, and then sent the Imperial decree to Yue Chen. He said that Emperor Xue would reward the Imperial harem, and Concubine De would soon become a consort so he sent for him to the Imperial capital for congratulation.
Yue Chen thought it's true. He's ready to go back to the capital.
When the general saw that he was leaving, he was too late to be happy, and he was afraid that the emperor would repent. He was expected to go back to the Imperial capital quickly. Otherwise, if he didn't do anything every day, he would know what he wants in the camp.
Teng Yun, taking advantage of Zhang Hong's being ill with depression, ordered him to set up camp again, shortened the battle line and deliberately left a gap, waiting for Zhang Hong's recovery.
Zhang Hong was ill for a month, and finally got better. His first thought was revenge. How could such a disgrace not be revenged? He led another general to fight. Qi Zhan and Qi Zi Jie were of the same clan. Zhang Hong has always hated Qi Zi Jie's battle achievements, and finally forced Qi Zi Jie away. Thinking that no one was fighting with him now, he led his life to fight for good things.
Qi Zhan looked at the terrain and found it funny that Xue army is encamped this way. The army was divided in its forces into two piles, left and right, and left a gap in the middle. If he breaks the middle of them, he can break the Xue army's forces separately. Xue army's many forces were not terrible.
Qi Zhan let the army to cuss at Teng Yun. It's hard to hear what is being said. Teng Yun and others just said, “Who is willing to lead the army?"
After the previous battle, most of his soldiers were convinced of Teng Yun’s mighty. Now some people scold the commander-in-chief, and they can't hold their breath to fight the other person.
Lang Jing said with a smile, "Zhang Mo can go."
Zhang Mo blushed with embarrassment and said: “I don't know what he did when he joined the army. Zhang Mo's right hand can only carry a pen but not a gun. It's true... There is a real burden."
After hearing this, they thought that Lang Jing deliberately made trouble with the master clerk. The people here wanted to fight with Lang Jing, but only heard Teng Yun saying, “The way to join the army is just because someone wants to."
They don't know why, Teng Yun said with a smile, “Although the master clerk can't fight, he still hopes to participate and make contributions, right?"
Zhang Mo nodded and said, "Naturally, otherwise, I will stay in the military camp, even if it is for writing documents."
Teng Yun said: “Then you can thank the recommendation of joining the army. As long as you fight this time, you don't need to try your best to lead the enemy into the battle in the future. I will join the army leading a team of people and horses to meet the master clerk. I personally take a team of people to cover the back road, and the rest go back to the camp. Then we will wait for the turtle to enter the urn."
Zhang Mo understood immediately and said with a smile, “I see!"
At that time, all the soldiers left and went back to the camp to make a fire and eat enough food to prepare to fight.
Qi Zhan asked the soldiers to prepare for a day's battle. The soldiers who shouted at him lost their strength. It was getting dark, and they were going to retreat. Tomorrow, they called for the battle, and they saw a group of people coming towards this side, headed by Zhang Mo.
Qi Zhan was tired for a day. At this time, he saw people coming. He was furious and rushed to meet the enemy with a big sword.
Qi Zhan is also a strong general. Zhang Mo's right hand is injured, so he dare not use it hard. He can fight for a few minutes and then he immediately pulled his horse back to escape. The soldiers behind seeing Zhang Mo running, and they followed him. Qi Zhan thought that the Xue army was afraid. He asked the soldiers to drum up the Imperial Guards army and beat Zhang Mo as he was retreating.
The enemy soon rushed into the trap especially left by Teng Yun. There were barracks on the left and right sides. The archers were shooting down from the high sentry tower. Zhang Mo, who faked running in front of him, suddenly stopped his horse. It turned out that it was Commander Lang Jing who came to block the pursuers from reaching the master clerk.
As soon as Qi Zhan saw that things were not good, he hurried to draw back. But as soon as everyone turned around and planned to retreat, Teng Yun with a team of elite soldiers blocked the way back. At that time, Qi Zhan's soldiers were surrounded by the Xue army in all directions. The soldiers held the flag of “General Teng Ying". Qi Zhan's flag had been poked out by random arrows, fell to the ground and was stepped on by his own people.
Teng Yun captured Qi Zhan and his men and horses back alive. They took out wine and meat to celebrate the victory. They trapped the prisoners under the tent and let them watch the wine and meat but could not eat anything.
Qi Zhan cussed Teng Yun at first, but later he gradually lost his strength.
Teng Yun said at this time: “Teng Ying heard about the prestige of General Qi. Today, when he saw it, he did not bow his head even when he was captured."
Qi Zhan is so hungry that he screamed some more. He is a little ashamed to hear that, but he still refused to accept it.
Teng Yun seemed to have drunk too much wine. He stumbled over and take out the Tiger Wings sword from his waist with a smile. The whole body of the Tiger Wings sword is black, but it's cold at night. Qi Zhan looked at his unsteady hands, afraid that he's drunk, and cuts himself off.
Teng Yun was holding the sword, so he when he shook it at will and heard the sound of “Hiss". The rope trapped in Qi Zhan's body has been cut off, but Qi Zhan has not been injured at all, which made him have a faint fear of Teng Yun.
“Teng Ying will cherish talents in his whole life. The general is a brave general. If he is willing to join Teng Ying, we will not treat you badly."
Teng Yun asked people to bring wine and meat to entertain Qi Zhan. Qi Zhan was starving, but Teng Yun said that only after surrendering can he eat.
Qi Zhan had no way, so he pretended to surrender, ate enough, and pretended: “This humble sinner respects to the Imperial court official. How can the general treat me kind like this? The humble sinner is willing to follow the general. But I can't bear Zhang Hong's accusation on me falling on other. I have two generals under Zhang Hong’s camp. They have been friends with this humble sinner for a long time. If you were to give them a fast horse. I'm willing to go to persuade them. When they see this humble sinner's face, they will lead the soldiers to come back together. Isn't that good?"
Teng Yun just smiled and pretended to be surprised: “Teng Ying heard that there are many brave generals under Zhang Hong's army, so great."
So he took Qi Zhan with him and led him to the back of the camp to see the Xue army's mountains of food and salaries. Qi Zhan laughed at Teng Yun's lack of defensiveness and secretly memorize down the location of grain and salaries.
Teng Yun led him to the stable again, asked him to pick a horse he liked and went back to persuade the other two.
Qi Zhan picked a rare horse and rushed back to Zhang Hong's camp overnight.
When Zhang Hong saw him coming back alone, he immediately got angry and asked people to pull Qi Zhan down and cut him off.
Qi Zhan knelt on the ground and cried, “Teng Ying is a scheming guy. He is capable of dangerous feats. I was almost killed by his sword. If I didn't fight for the horse, I wouldn't see the commander-in-chief!"
Zhang Hong saw that he was crying miserably. He thought if he killed him it will be him who lost another general. Now it's also the time to keep as many people.
Zhang Mo didn't understand why Teng Yun put the enemy back, and Teng Yun said with a smile: “This is the way to put a long line to catch big fish. It's too easy to kill Qi Zhan, Zhang Hong would be losing a single general. If I put Qi Zhan back, I can let Zhang Hong not only kill Qi Zhan him, but also kill two other generals together."
Zhang Mo knew that he was going to use lure attack strategy. If the enemy could not attack any more in case of civil strife, the Shui River would not have to be full of corpses and this made him admire Teng Yun even more.
At this time, Lang Jing pulled up the curtain and came in, then he said, “It's ready."
Teng Yun nodded. He didn't know what the two were selling. So he asked Zhang Mo to watch the play.
The three men went out of the tent together and came to the open field of the training. The soldiers were armed with weapons. Teng Yun ordered the soldiers to carry all the grain and salaries in the granary to another camp not far away.
It turned out that Teng Yun brought Qi Zhan to see the grain and salaries, and it was a trap specially set up as a part of a chain of traps. He was sure that Qi Zhan would make up for his achievements and attempt to rob the food after he went back, so he ordered people to empty the granary and give Qi Zhan an empty city plan.
In the third watch of the night, as expected, a team of people came to intercept the stronghold secretly and rushed into the stronghold without seeing anyone. When they came to the granary, they couldn't even see a grain of rice. They immediately knew that they had been set on a trap.
But it was too late. Zhang Hong's soldiers were captured alive by Teng Yun for the third time.
Teng Yun pretended to be careless and let Qi Zhan go back. Then he took Zhang Mo and Lang Jing to see the prisoners.
Teng Yun, holding the Tiger Wings sword in his hand, asked, “Who among you are Qi Zhan’s subordinate?"
At first, when no one spoke, Teng Yun said with a smile, “If there is none who is Qi Zhan’s subordinate, so kill them. I also said that so that the people of Qi Zhan should be left behind."
When the prisoner heard this, he was stunned for a moment. Then a man shouted, “I'm under Qi Zhan."
Teng Yun asked people to untie him, and then took him to eat. When they saw the other person, they said they were Qi Zhan's subordinates.
Teng Yun collected all these people into the army, and then sent ten people back to make them pretend to be defeated and send letters. He asked Qi Zhan and the other two generals why he didn't send Zhang Hong's head. Even if the time was rare, he shouldn't delay it. Did Qi Zhan forget the fine steed that General Teng gave in exchange for sparing his life so he can kill Zhang Hong?
These soldiers thought that they will die when they went back. It's better to tell Zhang Hong the news and save their lives. As soon as they got together, they ran to Zhang Hong’s camp and conveyed the words from Teng Yun to Zhang Hong.
Zhang Hong was really hit by the attack plan from Teng Yun. It turned out that he lost three times in a row, all because of Qi Zhan. In fact, his general was bought by the Xue state.
The more Zhang Hong thought about it, the angrier he was. He called Qi Zhan and said, “Your horse is a fine horse?"
Qi Zhan thought Zhang Hong liked it and wanted to dedicate it to Zhang Hong. He flattered him and said, “It's exactly right. It's a rare horse..."
Just before he finished saying what he wanted to dedicate to Zhang Hong, Zhang Hong pulled out his sword and cut off Qi Zhan's head with one sword swing.
Feng Ming has always asked Qi Zi Jie to watch the battle on the other side of the Shui River. Qi Zi Jie reported the incident to Feng Ming. Feng Ming was a little surprised and said, “This one is called Teng Ying. He will be a big trouble in the future."
Imperial court official Lu Shi knew that Teng Ying was the Marquis of Tengnan who had been under house arrest before. The Marquis of Tengnan was a gentleman at that time. He didn't make trouble for him, thinking that if Teng Ying can be taken to the Feng state, it would be a good thing there.
But Feng Ming didn't think so. It's too dangerous to raise the tiger in one owns backyard. When Teng Ying defeats Zhang Hong, Emperor Xue will let him continue to fight the Feng state.
Qi Zi Jie said, “In fact, Teng Ying may not win this time,"
Feng Ming said, “Why?"
Qi Zi Jie said, “Did the emperor forget that there is a Yue Chen under Teng Ying's camp?"
Hearing this, Feng Ming immediately laughed and said, “It's just like this. Yue Chen may not be able to win the war, but he will be competent enough to lose the war. Then we can then help the Xue state to fight back Zhang Hong."
So when Yue Chen was preparing to go back to the Imperial capital happily, someone suddenly said to him, “Why are you happy, general? This is a dead end for you if you go to the Imperial capital. Emperor Xue, fearing that you would not go back to the Imperial capital, lured you with the Concubine De affair. I'm afraid that there are swordsmen arranged on both sides of the gate of the capital, waiting for the general."
When Yue Chen heard this, he immediately felt disillusioned. That night, a man escaped out of the barracks and went to Zhang Hong
Zhang Hong cut off Qi Zhan and wanted to kill the other two people. He was afraid that when they got the news that they will want to kill him, so he set up a banquet to invite them to the banquet. At the banquet, they prepared swordsmen and archers.
In the chaos of the fight, Yue Chen rushed in and stopped the crowd, then he said, “It's all the tricks of the guy called Teng Ying, you've got caught in his trap!"
Zhang Hong listened to Yue Chen's words and felt reasonable. He regretted that he had cut off Qi Zhan's head.
Yue Chen said with a smile: “It's also useful to cut off the head. Why don't the commander let the other two generals take the soldiers and put their heads in brocade boxes, pretending to surrender, saying that this is the commander's head, because knowing that the commander is going to kill them, he can only start the army, and there is no way to go to dedicate his head to the Xue state."
Zhang Hong listened to complacency and said, “In this way, the Xue army will not be on guard again!"
Zhang Hong rewarded Yue Chen with reinforcements to wipe out the Shui River's army.
Yue Chen added: “When the army pretends to surrender, it will come as a surprise. With the cunning Teng Ying, he will not forget to flee to the hinterland. There will be people living nearby. At the end of the day, you will be willing to lead a thousand soldiers and ambush downstream of the Shui River. You will wait for Teng Ying to flee here and strike!"
Zhang Hong was so happy that he didn't know what to do, so he set up an ambush.
Within two days, Teng Yun received a report from the sentry that there was a large army outside, led by Zhang Hong's general. Each of them held a piece of white cloth and signaled to surrender.
Teng Yun was afraid that it was a trick. He didn't let them into the camp, but came out in person. The chief general knelt down on the ground and said, “Please accept me! Zhang Hong that villain killed Qi Zhan and set up a banquet to ambush this humble sinner. This humble sinner and his brothers clashed with the other person and had to cut off Zhang Hong's head. Now there is no way to go. We ask the commander to keep us. This humble sinner is willing to serve Zhang Hong's head and dare not rebel." Said the man holding the brocade box.
Zhang Mo also heard the news. He held the Tiger Wings sword in his hand and put it into Teng Yun's hand.
At this time, Lang Jing came in a hurry, said a word in Teng Yun's ear, and went back to the camp again.
Teng Yun calculated it in his heart. Lang Jing said the four words “Yue Chen ran away", but the weight of these four words is not small. Yue Chen rebelled, so this right here maybe a trap in the making.
The enemy's army is crushed, but their own army has not been sorted out in order, how can they fight? Teng Yun now has to delay time, and wait for Lang Jing to go in and send his troops to check.
Teng Yun was sweating in the palm of his hand, while the enemy general was also sweating in the palm, because the brocade box contained Qi Zhan’s head.
Suddenly they heard to the sound of drums, the general of the enemy was shocked. He understood that the trap had been caught for a long time. He immediately let his men attack and the two armies clashed for a while.
Although Xue army had Lang Jing to prepare, he was still not as ready as the other side. At one time, the soldiers rushed to fight and were scattered by Zhang Hong's army.
Zhang Mo cut down one of the enemy's cavalry, seized the horse, and saw Teng Yun stop the attack of the enemy's general for Lang Jing. Lang Jing is the appointee of the Imperial court official, and he can't fight at all. When this kind of chaos happens, he looks embarrassed.
The enemy general of the other side is also a brave man. Although Teng Yun can stop him for a while, he doesn't know if he has enough physical strength. Zhang Mo gave the horse to Lang Jing and asked him to call out for help.
Lang Jing didn't hesitate to turn over and mount his horse. Zhang Mo opened the way for him and ran out. Seeing that he had left, Zhang Mo raised his sword and went back to fight. The soldiers were scattered and the defeat was already happening. Both Teng Yun and Zhang Mo knew that they couldn't continue to struggle, so they led the rest of the army to retreat.
Zhang Mo also couldn't bear to take the army to the hinterland. After all, it must be the common people who will suffer. So he gnawed his teeth and said, “The terrain downstream of the Shui River is dangerous. Let's go there, and there are troops there."
At this time, no one could think about it, so he had to go to the lower reached of the Shui River. Zhang Hong personally came to kill them, as if to kill them all.
Teng Yun led his troops all the way to kill and retreat. Tens of thousands of soldiers fled to death, leaving only about a thousand.
Teng Yun Zhang Mo and several generals cut off their way and let a thousand soldiers escape first. Seeing that the enemy would catch up with him, Teng Yun turned his horse to meet the enemies. Everyone murmured that it was not good. At this time, the commander in chief actually cut the enemy off the horse.
Teng Yun stood on the horse with his sword raised. Zhang Hong led his soldiers to chase him and dare not move forward. The Xue army has gone far by this time. The rest of the talent escorted Teng Yun to the lower reached of the Shui River.
Zhang Hong was frightened by the courage shown by Teng Yun. He didn't dare to chase forward. The Imperial court official also said that the terrain in front of him should be the wetlands, and he couldn't chase anymore. They were afraid he had set an ambush in the chase. Because Yue Chen had been intercepting in the lower reached of the Shui River, Zhang Hong didn't feel any regret, and so he retired and went back to the camp, waiting for the good news to come.
The Xue army was exhausted when it got the lower reached. The terrain of the lower reached was dangerous, but the scenery was quite spectacular. There was a pool of water not far away. Peach flowered were planted all around the water, which flowed straight and beautiful.
Seeing that the soldiers were thirsty, Teng Yun said, “What kind of water is this?"
Zhang Mo said: “It's called Peach Blossoms pond. There are many reeds in the pond water. After being exposed to the sun, they are poisonous and so we can't drink water, so it's also called dead water."
Teng Yun looked at the Peach Blossoms pond and suddenly smiles. Zhang Mo asked him why he smiled. Teng Yun frowned and said, “We forgot Yue Chen. You can see Yue Chen just now?"
Zhang Mo was shocked at this time. He understood that Yue Chen might have been laying in ambush here for a long time. He was thinking that a drum sounded suddenly. It was the soldier from Yue Chen.
Zhang Mo asked Teng Yun to mount his horse and run away, but Teng Yun did not. He ordered Zhang Mo to take a thousand soldiers down and stand in front of Yue Chen.
Yue Chen had heard about Zhang Hong's pursuit, but he was frightened. He dared not go forward and so he sent a general to fight. The general was killed by the Tiger Wings sword.
Yue Chen is now even more afraid, but there is only one person Teng Yun, and he can't overturn the battle by himself, so all the soldiers and sedans will fight in a wheeled manner. Teng Yun is not strong enough, and he also understood the strategy used by Yue Chen, but only in this way can he support the army from any pursuit.
Until dusk, Teng Yun suddenly turned over and dismounted. Yue Chen did not know what tricks he thought of, so he stood still. Teng Yun went to the edge of the Peach Blossoms pond, sat down slowly holding a peach tree, turned over his hand and inserted the Tiger Wings sword into the nearby soil. He even closed his eyes as if he was resting.
The petals of peach blossom were blown down by the wind and sprinkled on Teng Yun, but the man seemed to be asleep and did not move. Yue Chen glared at the leisure man time and then got angry. He thought that Teng Yun was playing him again and ordered the soldiers to fight again.
Just as the soldiers passed by, Teng Yun didn't move anymore. He attached himself to his body and explored his nose. At this time, Teng Yun looked like he had already died from exhaustion.
Yue Chen happily asked the soldiers to destroy Teng Yun’s body, and then continues to pursue him. But before he can do anything, he was suddenly surrounded by a team of people from the side.
Qi Zi Jie led the Feng army to encircle Yue Chen, slashed him and took Teng Yun’s body away.
When Zhang Mo saw the troop, he quickly led the troop back to lower blossom pong. When he returned to the place, he saw only one dead body. Yue Chen was lying on the ground and dead. He did not see Teng Yun, but only a good sword under the peach tree
----
~ The Ugly Empress ~
Comments
Post a Comment