Chapter 219 Parties
As Tang Tian was seriously injured, the responsibility of defending Xiangyang City fell on Ou Zanghua's shoulders. However, before that, he had to deal with the affairs of Yicheng County first.

In this battle, 1,500 enemies were killed, more than 2,000 were missing, and the remaining 6,000 were all captured.

Among the bandits killed, the one with the highest rank was the Fengtian Zhengguo Marshal, Governor of the Fourth Army, Chang Wei. Two of his three commanders were killed by Zuo Lengchan, and the remaining one was missing.

"The so-called missing is nothing more than escaping during the chaos."

Ou Zanghua put down the memorial and said calmly, "The cavalry will form groups of ten, bring signal fireworks, and go out to look for these bandits. Once you find them, immediately fire the signal fireworks, and the surrounding cavalry must immediately provide support."

"Yes!" Zuo Lengchan responded, then turned and walked out.

"Master Tianmen, have you found the enemy army's treasury?" Ou Zanghua asked the Taoist priest beside him.

Taoist priest Tianmen stepped forward, bowed, and then spoke: "Master Ou, this is why I came here. We found two secret warehouses, one of which has been emptied, and the other contains copper coins, silver, and jewelry. My disciples are currently counting them."

"Very good. Tell me immediately after you have counted everything."

"Yes!"

"Also, Taoist Tianmen, find a good feng shui location and arrange for the captives to dig the pit and carry the bodies. Remember to dig deep so that wild animals won't dig out the bodies."

"Yes!"

As Ou Zanghua issued orders one by one, Yicheng County was gradually getting back on track. Even the bloodstains on the streets were cleaned up by the prisoners.

When it was light in the morning, Taoist Tiansong came in with a memorial, bowed and said, "Sir Ou, the items in the storeroom have been counted. Here is the list."

"Thank you, Taoist priest." Ou Zanghua took it and opened it to have a look. Among them were two thousand taels of silver, five thousand strings of copper coins, and the rest were some silk, brocade and porcelain.

"Distribute these silver and copper coins according to the number of enemies killed by the soldiers!"

"Later, I sold the silk, brocade and porcelain at a price 10% lower than the market price."

"Use the money you earn to recruit workers in the city to repair the damaged houses. As for the city walls, gates, and roads, let the prisoners repair them."

Taoist Tiansong took Ou Zanghua's instructions to heart. After leaving the county government office, he immediately called Jianchu to assist him in completing these tasks.

Ou Zanghua stayed in Yicheng County for five days. In addition to letting the captives do things every day, he also paid attention to the situation in the outside world.

Zuo Lengchan led the cavalry to sweep the surrounding area, and repeatedly broke up the bandit army that had regrouped. He finally found the commander who had escaped two days ago and beheaded him. Only then was he able to pacify the area around Yicheng County.

On the other side, Liu Hui and Zhao Sui finally received the news that the Third Army was completely defeated. In addition to those who died in battle and escaped, nearly 8,000 people surrendered.

With a "bang", Zhao Sui slapped the table and growled with gritted teeth: "Great! You are such an Ou Keqing, you dare to kill my brother!"

Liu Hui also frowned slightly. They were in a confrontation between Zhongmu County and Pengze, and had fought several times in between. It can only be said that they lost more than they won.

However, neither of them took Peng Ze, who was in charge of the border troops, seriously. The person they were really concerned about was Xianning Bo Qiu Yue, who led 3,000 battalions to roam around Kaifeng.

Therefore, when Liu Hui heard that the Third Army had been wiped out, his first reaction was that Qiu Yue and Peng Ze were creating opportunities for Ou Zanghua.
At this time, Zhao Sui, who had vented his anger, regained his sanity. He looked at Liu Hui and said, "Marshal, we can't waste time here with Qiu Yue and Peng Ze!" "Six days ago, the Third Army was wiped out. If I were Ou Zanghua, I would rush to destroy the Fourth Army as well. This way, we can prevent Runing from being attacked from both sides."

"In fact, the real threat to us is the 3,000-man battalion under Qiu Yue. It is already mid-March, and the border troops must return to the border in July to prevent the Mongols from coming south to raid the valleys in the fall."

"So as long as we deal with them for four months, the border troops will naturally retreat, and our opponents will only have 3,000 battalions left."

After hearing this, Liu Hui somewhat agreed with what Zhao Sui said. The fighting capacity of the border troops was too strong, and they were able to maintain the situation by relying on their numerical advantage.

If they continue to confront each other like this, they will be consumed by the border troops sooner or later.

By then, Qiu Yue, who has been watching closely from the side, will not let go of the opportunity. They may be taken away by the two of them just like Liu Liu and Liu Qi.

The two of them got together to discuss for a while and decided to follow the originally planned route.

First take Runing, capture the clan members, and at the same time rescue the surrendered brothers to enhance your own strength.

Then take a detour to Tongbai County and then to Yicheng County to rest. Then you will have two choices: you can go west to take Xiangyang, or you can go east to Wuchang.

As long as they could capture either Xiangyang or Wuchang, they would have a foothold again.

As for why they didn't go directly to Xinyang Prefecture.
Firstly, because they had no navy, they could not cross the Huai River in a short time with nearly 100,000 bandits.

If Qiu Yue gets entangled with him while crossing the river, he will be basically finished.

The second is to deliberately take a detour to delay time. The farther they go, the longer it takes to return. They can afford to waste time, but the border troops cannot.

So, after the two of them spent seven days arranging everything, they deliberately left one group of people as bait and led the remaining 90,000 people to evacuate Zhongmu County overnight.
At the same time, Yue Lingshan, who was far away in Lion Mountain, Yingtian Prefecture, finally received a reply from Liu Qing after waiting for more than twenty days.

It turned out that in mid-February, Yue Lingshan wrote a letter to Liu Qing, telling her about what happened in Yingtian Prefecture, and especially mentioned her junior brother Lingsong who possessed seven inner powers.

What left Yue Lingshan speechless was that the eldest senior brother Linghu Chong said he was going to Hangzhou to find a senior with profound internal skills to rescue his junior brother, but he actually left in January, and it has been more than 30 days now. The news that came back was all about which good friend the eldest senior brother made today, which hero he would drink with tomorrow, and which courtesan he would be in public the day after tomorrow. How could it look like he was looking for someone?
Seeing her junior brother’s face getting paler and paler, Yue Lingshan had no choice but to ask Liu Qing if Senior Brother Ou could save her junior brother if he took action.

Liu Qing was originally very happy about Yue Lingshan's letter, but she felt helpless after reading it. She didn't expect Senior Brother Linghu to be so unreliable. No wonder Senior Sister Yue gave up on him.

In her reply, she said that she had no idea what level Ou Zanghua's inner strength had reached, so she could not answer Yue Lingshan's question.

But Uncle Zuo has always been by her husband's side, so if the two of them join forces there should be a chance.

But there was only one problem. Ou Zanghua had been ordered to leave the capital in the first month of the year to suppress the bandits, and he had not returned yet, and Liu Qing did not know where he was now.
　In fact, when I set out today, I knew there would be traffic jams on the highway, as it had been in previous years, so I was mentally prepared.

　　Who would have thought that the highways would be so congested this year!

　　The journey that was supposed to take more than two hours took me more than six hours, and I could only drive at a maximum speed of 60 miles per hour on the highway.

　　Then one of my cousins ​​made preparations in advance, chose a provincial road, and could run at a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour!

　　I got home around nine in the evening, and he took his family to enjoy the night view of the river on the provincial road. It was really enviable.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)