: Stubborn

Shazhou is different from Yizhou. Yizhou is close to Gaochang. In addition to a small number of Han people, most of them are Western Turks and Hu people, and at most they are less than 10,000 people. Yizhou City is said to be a city, but in fact it is not as strong as a county within the pass. Moreover, since its establishment, Yizhou has only been a few years since its establishment, and the Hu people under its jurisdiction have not yet returned. When Hou Junji brought his people to the scene, he even had many active internal responses. Otherwise, he would not have been attacked by Hou Junji in less than two days.

Shazhou, near Yumen Pass in the north and Yangguan Pass in the south, can also be regarded as an important defense line for the Tang Dynasty to defend the northwest countries. There were more than 10,000 troops stationed in it, and most of the residents were Han people. Even a few Hu Yi had been assimilated and returned to his heart. Now Yang Kunshang and the city lord of Yizhou were alerted in advance. Inside and outside Shazhou, Hou Junji's cavalry had been actively preparing for war for a long time before Hou Junji's cavalry attacked. Therefore, it was difficult for Hou Junji to capture Shazhou within three days.

"Cabinets attack the city?" The Lord of Shazhou City sneered disdainfully, looked at the two defeated generals in front of him, and said indifferently: "My Shazhou is not Yizhou, not anyone can break through at will. Not to mention that he only has 30,000 people, and they are all cavalry. Even if he has twice as many, Zhao is not afraid of him!"

"The people in the territory evacuated in batches and asked for help from Yumen Pass and Yang Pass defenders?" Zhao De sneered at Yang Kunshang and Li Rui, and jokingly said disdainfully: "Are you scared by Hou Junji? I have a strong city to defend and a strong army to rely on. I think that Hou Junji has 30,000 cavalry, but after all, he is alone, without ladders and no rushing cars, and he has never carried other siege equipment such as casting stones."

"Faced with such a group of cavalry who have no advantage in siege, General Yang and Lord Li suggested that Zhao ask for help from Yu and Yang Passes," Zhao De stood up from his chair, looked at Yang Kunshang and Li Rui coldly, and said in a low voice: "Are you two implicitly ridiculing Zhao's incompetence?"

"You!" After being looked at by someone for a long time, he heard Zhao De's sarcasm again. Li Rui, who had been a little patient, suddenly stood up and glared at Zhao De: "We are kind to come to warn you. Lord Zhao is so stubborn and does not listen to advice. Are you not afraid that there is something wrong with it? Is it difficult to explain to the emperor?!"

"What if?" Zhao De snorted coldly, he glanced at Li Rui coldly, and said, "Lord Li thought my Shazhou would be as vulnerable as your Yizhou? Or did Lord Li think that I, Zhao De, would also flee like Lord Li, without the determination to live and die with the city?"

"Zhao De! You bully people too much! Who did you say escape at the last minute?! Who did you say that you didn't want to live and die with the city?!" A mouthful of blood did not splash out. Li Rui pointed at Zhao De with his trembling arm, and his eyes were red and he wished he could swallow Zhao De in one mouthful.

"The defeated general is not brave enough." Seeing that Li Rui seemed to be interested in rushing forward to argue with Zhao De, Yang Kunshang stood up and stopped him, looked at Zhao De with a blank expression, and said indifferently: "Since Lord Zhao looks down on us, it is useless to say more."

"The so-called different ways and do not plan for each other. Since Lord Zhao decided to stick to this place and not ask for foreign aid, then we can only wish Lord Zhao a victory." He raised his hand and bowed to Zhao De. Yang Kunshang said softly: "As for Yang and Lord Li, we two defeated generals, we are not too lazy to stay here. We just took this opportunity to resign from Lord Zhao and return to Chang'an to apologize to the emperor!"

After saying that, Yang Kunshang pulled Li Rui, who was still angry, and turned around and left. He said the same thing, saying that he was different and he was not planning to each other. Since Zhao De wanted to die, why should they obstruct him from it and be a cowardly person in Zhao De's eyes?

"Oh, and," Yang Kunshang suddenly stopped, looked back at Zhao De, and said in a low voice: "Lord Li did not escape at the battle, nor did he not have the determination to live and die with the city. It was because Yang could not bear such loyalty and fearless death, so he forced Lord Li to faint and ran here."

"Uh? So what? The result is not..." Zhao De was embarrassed and looked up and was about to say something. Unexpectedly, there was no one in the tent. He couldn't help but sway his sleeves in anger and said angrily: "It's so outrageous! Just a defeated general, how arrogant is?!"

"Don't be upset," the deputy general under the seat persuaded him: "As far as the generals are concerned, they are just looking for excuses to shirk responsibility for the failure of the war. It is not worth being angry about such a person."

"Well," Zhao De nodded slightly, looked down at his deputy general, and asked in a voice: "In your opinion, in the face of the 30,000 cavalry of Hou Junji, do I need to ask for help from Yumen Pass and Yang Pass?"

"Of course, there is no need to do so," the deputy general bowed his hand and replied: "As the city lord said before, Hou Jun gathered 30,000 cavalry, although three times the garrison of our Shazhou, they had no siege equipment, and the second was the Long March attack, and there was insufficient supplies. As long as we could hold on for two days, they would retreat without fighting."

"And, more importantly," the deputy general continued with a sneering voice: "If you ask for help from Yu and Yang Passes, then the contribution of blocking the enemy's army outside the city may fall on the city lord..."

"Don't talk nonsense!" Zhao De narrowed his eyes, glanced at the deputy general coldly, and said, "Is this city lord the kind of person who is greedy for merit and proactive?"

No, it's weird!

I have accumulated so much money in Shazhou in the past two years. Who can't tell that you want to take this opportunity to make more contributions and want to be transferred back to Zhongyuan to enjoy some blessings? The deputy general despised their city lord in his heart, but he still smiled and nodded repeatedly.

After all, only when the city lord leaves, he, the deputy general, has the chance to become a regular person. Although Shazhou is biased and cannot be as rich as the Central Plains, as the lord of a city, he can still make some money. Moreover, the mountains here are high and the emperor is far away. The city lord is not much different from a local emperor. Only fools like Zhao De will think of bringing some money back to the Central Plains.

"It's so unreasonable! It's so unreasonable!" Li Rui's anger in his heart was still unrest. He looked back at Zhao De's city lord's mansion, spat fiercely, muttering: "Stubborn and self-righteous. With a Shangguan like him, let alone a small Shazhou city, even if the capital Chang'an falls into his hands, it will sooner or later be a defeat!"

It is considered to be a person who escapes at the forefront, and is greedy for life and fears death. Just as Yang Kunshang said just now, the defeated generals are not brave enough to speak. Li Rui should tolerate this tone. Who told them to be defeated? It is also necessary to be mocked by others.

However, what Li Rui could not accept but could not bear it was that Zhao De even rejected their suggestions, and he was so arrogant that he wanted to defend himself with ten thousand defenders to resist Hou Junji's 30,000 cavalry.

Who did he think he was? He was just a small city guard who had never been to the battlefield and had seen swords and soldiers. Has he seen Hou Junji's methods and the cruelty of the Gaochang Iron Cavalry? A garrison who could not even understand his opponent and enemy's military strength dared to say that he wanted to defend the city and repel Hou Junji?

Bah! He is playing the land of the Tang Dynasty! He is playing the safety of the people of the Tang Dynasty!

"Let's go, Lord Li." He patted Li Rui's shoulder and Yang Kunshang comforted him softly: "Instead of saying something meaningless, it's better to set off earlier and go to Yumen Pass to warn him for help, hoping that Zhao De can persist until the reinforcements arrive."

That being said, but in my heart, Yang Kunshang has sentenced Zhao De to death. It will take at least two days to ride a fast horse from Shazhou to Yumen Pass. When they go there, it will take at least four days to wait until reinforcements from Yumen Pass come. The key question now is, can Zhao De and others stay for four days?

If a city with 30,000 troops took four days but could not conquer one, which was not too solid, and had only 10,000 defenders, Hou Junji would not deserve to be a famous general who had won many battles.

Therefore, in Yang Kunshang's eyes, Zhao De is already considered a dead person. Is it necessary to be angry with a dying person?

"That's right, but..." Li Rui was still a little embarrassed. He had the opportunity to minimize the crisis in Shazhou and could also fight for most residents to escape from disaster. However, it was just because of the obstruction of a city lord that he gave up in vain. Li Rui couldn't bear it and was not willing to give up.

"What if you don't leave?" Even if you can't bear it, you have to learn to give up when it's time to give up. Yang Kunshang glanced at Li Rui and said, "Just as Lord Li said just now, Zhao De is a stubborn, self-righteous person, and can't listen to others."

"Our kindness was seen by him as an unpredictable intention to prevent him from making contributions," said Yang Kunshang. "If we don't know what to do, we will definitely cause unreasonable suspicion. Not to mention anything else, just a charge of confusing the morale of the army will be enough to make us unable to advance or retreat. At that time, we may have lost our lives before Hou Junji comes."

"Uh?" Li Rui was stunned when he heard this, and then nodded helplessly. Based on Zhao De's stubborn and suspicious nature and his previous attitude of disrespect for them, the possibility in Yang Kunshang's words was not completely gone.

The two of them, one is the defeated general, the other is the lost lord, and now they are in a remote area. Zhao De, the local emperor who has been in Shazhou for several years, has dared to keep them, and even casually put on a charge, and no one will say a good thing for them.
Chapter completed!