I want to be emperor

Chapter 128 How to be a thief
Early in the morning on April 25th in the eighth year of Chongzhen, outside Nanyang City.

Chen Yongfu led more than a hundred people wearing Ming army uniforms all the way south, and soon came to the outside of Nanyang City.

At this time, the gate of Nanyang City was closed tightly, and there were still many nervous soldiers stationed on the top of the city, and there were several generals in armor or officials in civil robes on the gate tower.

Chen Yongfu led his men close to the city gate two or 300 meters away, and immediately sent two people forward.

"Quickly open the door and let us in. Quickly, there are bandits behind you. Let me wait to enter the city."

"General Chen is just outside the city, you don't have to open the city gate quickly, otherwise, you will not be able to bear General Chen's anger."

The two men shouted loudly back and forth immediately.

Unexpectedly, the people in the city did not open the door at all, but directly shot several arrows out, and there was a man who looked like a general on the top of the city gate shouting: "Bold Chen thief, it's fine to cast a thief yesterday, and now you dare to cheat the city gate!" , Such unfaithful and unrighteous people should be punished as everyone can."

Chen Yongfu in the distance couldn't help showing anger when he heard this.

Even though he really turned himself into a thief, he still felt a little embarrassed when the people on the top of the city called him out and scolded him for being unfaithful and unrighteous.

However, he still endured it, and turned to a humane man dressed as a soldier beside him: "Li Battalion Commander, it seems that we are still late, Nanyang City has already learned about the battle in Zhaozhuang, it should be yesterday. The broken soldiers fled back first and informed them of the situation."

Battalion Commander Li, who was dressed as a soldier of the Ming Army beside him, said: "It's a pity, if I knew we should have gone south yesterday with light clothes, and ran to Nanyang City in one breath, maybe we could sneak into Nanyang City."

"As long as we can get dozens of people mixed in, it will be much easier to attack the city."

Chen Yongfu also responded: "Who says it's not, it's just that yesterday was too late."

Li Battalion Commander said: "Since we can't deceive the city gate, let's wait for the generals. Although Nanyang City is strong, it is impossible to stop our township protection army with thousands of guards and civilians in the city. .”

"What's more, even if we can't directly deceive the city gate, there are also spies from our army in the city. Although the number is a little smaller, it is not a problem to cause some chaos when our army officially attacks the city."

In the past month or so, the Township Protection Army has successively dispatched spies to Nanzhao County, Nanyang City and even several surrounding cities.

In the beginning, they only sent spies to find out all kinds of news. Later, the intelligence section of the staff office increased the manpower sent to each city, so that when the army attacked the city, they could cooperate from inside to outside.

Among them, Nanyang City is naturally a key city where the spies from the intelligence department have infiltrated and lurked. So far, more than 40 people have been sent and lurked.

Once the Rural Protection Army officially attacked Nanyang City, these 40 people would be able to create a certain amount of chaos in the city, and even open the city gates from inside and outside, thereby reducing the difficulty of attacking Nanyang City.

It's just that the specific effect will be seen in time.

Soon, Chen Yongfu and others left, but they didn't go far. Instead, they stopped in a large open space about a thousand meters away from the city, and began to build a simple camp.

After watching Chen Yongfu and the others leave, a green-robed official on the top of the city gate frowned and said, "How can this beauty be a thief!"

A colleague who also wore a green robe beside him said: "Hmph, I have long thought that Chen Yongfu is a treacherous person. In the past, he led troops to garrison our Nanyang Mansion and asked for a lot of money and food, but he delayed the matter of suppressing thieves as long as he could. No effort."

"In this way, it is not surprising that there is no imperial court and no treacherous villains from the Holy Majesty."

"We must submit a letter to the imperial court. Chen Yongfu must be severely punished for defecting to the thief. It is not enough to show the prestige of the imperial court."

Qingpao official, Song Qi, magistrate of Nanyang County, Nanyang Prefecture, frowned slightly when he heard this. He knew that Zuo Binglin and Chen Yongfu, the promotion officials of Nanyang Prefecture, would not deal with them normally, but these words sounded harsh.

You must know that when Chen Yongfu asked for military supplies a while ago, Song Qi also made great efforts to help Chen Yongfu raise military supplies for the safety of Nanyang City and because of his old relationship with Chen Yongfu.

But Song Qi didn't expect that Chen Yongfu would be defeated in the end, not to mention that he would vote for a thief.

Last night, after learning that Chen Yongfu had turned into a thief, Song Qi was very shocked, and besides being shocked, she was also very worried.

After all, many people knew that they and Chen Yongfu had known each other for a long time, and they were from the same hometown. After Chen Yongfu became a thief, he, Song Qi, had a high probability of being implicated.

Frowning slightly, he said: "Don't worry about this Chen Yongfu for now, when Governor Hong's army arrives, this Chen Yongfu will die without a place to bury him."

"Now our top priority is to find a way to stop these security thieves!"

"Chen Yongfu suffered a disastrous defeat in Zhaozhuang yesterday, but today the thieves are already approaching the city. I'm afraid the thieves will officially attack the city in two days. We have to guard against it!"

"Now there are still fewer soldiers in the city, and there are not many civilians recruited. We still need to recruit more civilians to help defend the city."

"Let's go, let's go and report back to the mansion. This recruiting requires a lot of money and food. Now that the official warehouse is empty and can run away from mice, we have to find the gentry in the city and the Tang Palace to discuss how to raise money and food."

Zuo Binglin, the pusher of Nanyang Mansion nearby, glanced at Song Qi, groaned coldly in his heart, and stopped talking.

If there is a chance another day, I will definitely impeach you, Song Qi, damn it, you dare to gather military supplies on the head of the official's domestic servant!

After Song Qi and Zuo Binglin ordered a few subordinates and generals to guard the city gates and keep an eye on the thieves outside the city, they immediately took sedan chairs to the magistrate's yamen.

Soon, a group of dignitaries and gentlemen gathered in the magistrate's yamen, but under the auspices of the lord of the mansion, although everyone said it nicely, saying that it is duty-bound to pay for money and food to resist the thieves, but it is really enough to ask them to pay money and food At the time, each of them only took a few hundred taels of silver to get rid of it.

On the contrary, the people sent by the Tang Palace were more generous, expressing their willingness to give 600 taels of silver and [-] catties of grain and grass for military supplies.

According to the last statistics, the government of Nanyang Prefecture collected a total of 420 taels of silver and [-] catties of grain. In addition, there were a bunch of messy things, such as dozens of bolts of cloth and several bolts of silk.

This is quite normal. The strange thing is that among the materials donated by the gentry, there are hundreds of such things as porcelain bowls and plates, and it is not an exception.

Many gentry just took out a few money, and then gave out some goods of their industry.

As for whether these materials can be used, it's none of their business...

It's just that, as soon as the counting of the money and food was completed, a group of officials tacitly lost [-]% of it, and after dividing the profit, it went into their own pockets.

Many of these materials were sold after they were lost, and they were sold directly without having to deal with them. What's interesting is that most of the businesses that bought these donated materials were the ones that donated these materials.

But this time they drifted more conscientiously, but it was only [-]% of the drift.

After all, the security thieves are coming soon, and they can't do too much, just follow the usual practice.

However, [-]% of the money was lost by the civil servants, and the remaining money and rations had to be distributed to the generals at all levels who led the army according to the usual practice.

This level of distribution continued, and finally the money and food that actually reached the hands of the soldiers was less than two or three tenths of the original.

Of the more than 4000 catties of grain, only more than [-] catties ended up in the military warehouses of the various ministries defending the city. As for the rest, they naturally went into the warehouses of the grain stores in the city.

Now the price of grain in the city is soaring, and the price of grain has increased by more than five times compared to normal times. Moreover, most grain merchants are reluctant to sell at this time. Even if ordinary people have some money in their hands, they still cannot buy grain.

This caused great panic in Nanyang City. After all, no one knew when the security guards would attack the city, whether they would massacre the city after the attack, or whether they would besiege the city if they failed to capture it.

These uncertain news caused the people in the city to panic. If the officers and soldiers had not blocked the city gate, it is estimated that the fleeing crowd would have blocked the city gate.

----

When news was flying all over Nanyang City and panic was overwhelming, Luo Zhixue finally arrived outside Nanyang City with his army at noon.

On the way, he had already learned that Chen Yongfu's plan to defraud the city gate had failed, but he didn't pay much attention to it.

It would be best for Chen Yongfu to be able to deceive the city gate, but if he can't be deceived, he can attack directly.

In any case, there were no regular battalion sentry soldiers in Nanyang City. It was impossible to block the attack of the township protection army with only [-] guard soldiers and an unknown number of young and strong civilian husbands.

Even though the walls of Nanyang City are tall and thick, there are even a lot of artillery on the top of the city.

But no matter how good the city defense system is, it is useless without a reliable army to garrison it.

As for the guard soldiers and civilian husbands in Nanyang City, even if ordinary thieves came to kill them, they didn't have the courage to resist, let alone the strength to resist.

Otherwise, the officials of Nanyang City would not have always wanted Chen Yongfu to stay in the city.

Isn't it because Chen Yongfu has two thousand soldiers in the headquarters.

After arriving outside Nanyang City, Luo Zhixue ordered the troops to set up camp and prepared various siege equipment, while he led some senior generals and guards to the nearby short hills for observation.

The focus is to observe the city defense system, especially some of the artillery deployed by the Ming army on the top of the city.

After careful observation, Luo Zhixue did not hesitate, but directly ordered the troops to prepare for the attack.

After his observation, although the city walls of Nanyang City are tall and thick, there are not many cannons on the walls, and they are all old cannons, and none of the long-barreled Hongyi cannons can be seen.

At the same time, he also observed that the Ming army on the top of the city was disorganized and their morale was low. At the same time, there were still a large number of young and strong soldiers who did not even have weapons.

The most important thing is that no matter whether the Ming army on the top of the city is young or young, few of them wear armor. As for the few who look like officers and the few soldiers around them, they only have armor.

The strength of the Ming army in the city was as expected by Luo Zhixue: not good!
For such a weak enemy, Luo Zhixue didn't intend to waste too much time, and ordered an attack soon!

(End of this chapter)