weaving

In three days, in just three days, the huge Shangqiu city wall was completely demolished, and even the moat was filled in completely, turning it into an undefended city!

Chuang Cao's army will stay near Shangqiu for a few more days, so that the surrounding states and counties in Shangqiu can rush to collect grain and grass in preparation for the upcoming siege of Kaifeng.

However, within a few days, Yuan Shizhong and his small Yuan camp suddenly became the focus of hundreds of thousands of troops. Overnight, they became role models and models for supporting King Chuang, especially gaining the favor and trust of Li Zicheng. .

Of course, Luo Rucai, Ji Gui and others in Cao Ying had other views on Yuan Shizhong. They believed that Yuan Shizhong's loyalty to King Chuang was not very trustworthy. There might be some other agenda, but they and Li Zicheng were not of the same mind. , at this moment, it is completely a mentality of watching the fire from the other side.

Even the generals Liu Zongmin, generals Li Guo, Tian Jianxiu, Li Yan and others in the camp felt that Yuan Shizhong's move would not be that simple. However, due to King Chuang's face, they could only pay more attention secretly. , but did not say it clearly in front of King Chuang.

The manuscript praising Li Zicheng's deeds has been read by Song Xiance and Niu Jinxing in the name of Yuan Shizhong's personal writing. Although it has been slightly modified, it is nothing more than adding some words of praise and "destined return", and then After the petition was submitted to King Chuang for personal review, he quickly carved it into several sets of woodblocks according to popular folk styles and printed them into small books.

Fortunately, when the cities of Suining and Shangqiu were destroyed, a lot of fine linen paper, white tissue paper, etc. were collected, and this small book praising King Chuang's achievements only has a few pages, which is enough to print in large quantities.

Yuan Shizhong even issued a military order for this purpose. He gathered together the craftsmen and family members of the soldiers, printed and folded them into small books, sewn them with needles and threads, cut off the rough edges, and distributed them to the sentry leaders. The documents taught the soldiers Recite it day and night.

The vast majority of the soldiers in Xiaoyuan camp are hard-working and low-level farmers. They are all illiterate. If you memorize it well, you will be rewarded; if you memorize it wrong, you will only have a military stick to serve you.

Although "A Must-Read for Soldiers" is not available in everyone at Xiaoyuan Camp, it is almost the same. It may be randomly checked at any time every day, whether you are leaving the camp, entering the camp, or even walking in the camp, you will be checked at any time. A spot check revealed that everyone was frightened of being beaten with military sticks, so they all memorized it carefully.

All the officers and soldiers in Chuangwanglaofu were direct descendants of Li Zicheng, and most of them were old people from Shaanxi. They were naturally happy to see the situation in Xiaoyuanying, and some even went to Xiaoyuanying to build relationships and demand this "Generals and Soldiers Must Be" "Reading" has been passed down and recited endlessly.

Luo Rucai had been watching Xiao Yuanying's performance with a cold eye. Although he looked down upon Yuan Shizhong's little move, military advisor Ji Gui reminded him: "When things go wrong, there must be a monster!"

"did you mean……?"

"I have had a lot of contact with Liu Yuchi. From what I heard in his conversation, I can see that he has no heart for King Chuang. And now that he has acted like this, I am afraid that he may have alienated his mind and want to leave."

"Oh. Are you sure?"

"Although I haven't received any word of commitment from Yuan and Liu, judging from their actions, I'm afraid they have accounted for 89%."

"Okay. If that's true, it will relieve my worries!"

Luo Rucai was reminded by Ji Gui. Although he was not very willing, but because of his feelings, he told Yuan Shizhong in front of King Chuang: "Niece-in-law, you are really good at printing that little book. You have to give it to Cao Ying's soldiers." We just need to distribute a few thousand copies.

You can't just give the soldiers from Laofu's camp and not give me the soldiers from Cao camp. If you favor one over the other, I won't agree! "

When Yuan Shizhong heard this, he hurriedly leaned over and said with a smile: "General Rong, it was not because I was the last general that I didn't give it to Brother Cao Ying. It was just that I couldn't rush to print it in time, so I didn't send the treasure account to the general. Please give me a few days of grace, general." Zhongding will personally present the Taoist General's treasure account to him, and there will be no mistake."

Luo Rucai smiled and said to him: "Just keep this in mind. Your wife is the adopted daughter of the generalissimo, and you are also Luo's niece and son-in-law. You can't just recognize your biological father-in-law and not recognize my cheap father-in-law, Lao Luo." ah.

I have a large number of people in Cao camp. If you don't send me thousands of copies, it won't be enough for us. If that's the case, I will not only blame you Yuan Shizhong, but I will also have to tell my niece Huimei in front of her when I see her. A few words for you. "

After hearing Luo Rucai's words, everyone, including Chuang Wang Li Zicheng, burst into laughter.

…………

While the soldiers of Xiaoyuan camp memorized the "Must Read for Soldiers", they were still severely punishing those who gossiped about "Chuang King". Some of them had their heads displayed in public, some had their ears pierced and traveled around the camp, and some were whipped. They were careful everywhere for a while. , everyone is deeply afraid of accidentally saying the wrong thing and causing disaster.

But even so, under the careful arrangements and plans of Yuan Shizhong, Liu Yuchi, Zhu Chengju and others, the soldiers of Xiaoyuanying did not hate Yuan Shizhong in their hearts, but sympathized with him under the power of King Chuang and the generals of Laofu. , shall not do so.

Yuan Shizhong's status in the Chuang camp was greatly improved as a result. Not only did he truly become Li Zicheng's confidant, he was also truly treated fairly by King Chuang as his "quick son-in-law riding a dragon".

Seeing that Xiao Yuan's camp did not have many cavalry, Li Zicheng showed his loyalty to him and specially rewarded him with 500 war horses. In addition, he also had 800 pairs of fine armor, 300 fine bows, and 5 fine firearms. Ten pieces.

Soon, the allied forces of Chuang Cao set off from Shangqiu City and marched towards Kaifeng Fucheng in the northwest. In order to continue to collect food and grass along the way, the army only traveled about forty miles a day.

Although Yuan Shizhong has gained Li Zicheng's great favor and enjoys Huimei's outstanding beauty and pure love, he has not changed his determination to break away from King Chuang at all.

The main force of the Allied Forces of Invading Cao came from Ningling and Suizhou, passed through Qixian County, and stopped at Chenliu County. Another partial division was sent slightly northwest, passing through Neihuang Town to the southwest of Lanyang, and joined the main force arriving at Chenliu County.

Xiao Yuan's camp was ordered to go westward with the main force. When passing through Suizhou, King Chuang ordered Yuan Shizhong to leave 3,000 infantrymen and gather the people in the city to bulldoze the walls of Suizhou.

Because the city walls of Qixian and Tongxu still needed to be demolished, Yuan Shizhong, after discussing with Liu Yuchi, specially asked King Chuang to hand over the task of demolishing the two cities to Xiao Yuanying. Li Zicheng readily agreed upon seeing his sincerity. .

Chuang Cao's army harvested ripe wheat in the fields and confiscated grain and grass in the vast area between Chenliu and Lanyang. Four days later, the city walls of Qixian and Tongxu were all demolished.

Near noon, Yuan Shizhong went to the old residence of Chenliu to meet with King Chuang and reported to him the matters of seizing the city and collecting grain and grass. King Chuang was very satisfied with the performance of Xiao Yuan's camp, and rewarded him with a thousand taels of silver as a reward, and ordered the entire camp to join him. We marched to the vicinity of Zhuxian Town and stationed fifteen miles away from Kaifeng City.

According to the reasons discussed with Liu Yuchi in advance, Yuan Shizhong asked the king of Chuang to allow Xiao Yuanying to stay in Qixian for an extra day or two.

Li Zicheng did not doubt that he was there, and immediately nodded and said: "In that case, Xiao Yuan's camp will stay in Qixian County for two more days. They will set up camp outside Kaifeng before dusk the day after tomorrow. Don't delay the siege."

Yuan Shi was secretly happy in his heart, but showed no emotion on the surface. He bowed and replied: "I will obey you!"

…………

Liu Yuchi, Zhu Chengju, Liu Jingyi and others were all happy after gaining trust in Xiao Yuan's camp.

They had received news earlier that the Ming Dynasty Governor Ding Qirui had stationed near Guangzhou, waiting for the rebel general Zuo Liangyu to come and join forces, so that the coalition forces could go north to rescue Kaifeng.

Moreover, according to investigation, it was learned that Kaifeng Fucheng must be rescued by the imperial court. There are officers and soldiers from Northern Zhili, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other parties coming to help. If reinforcements from all walks of life arrive and break into the fortified city of Cao's coalition army, they will be in the same bed. , coupled with being attacked from both sides, it will definitely be difficult to last.

Therefore, the counselors and leaders in Xiao Yuan's camp all agreed that the top priority was to break away from King Chuang's army as soon as possible as a way out, otherwise there would be a risk of the entire army being wiped out.

Liu Jingyi, the reporter, had always been dissatisfied with Liu Yuchi, especially for not taking advantage of the situation and defecting to King Chuang, so he took the lead in asking Yuan Shizhong: "The military advisor's brilliant calculation is like a god, I dare not say anything. However, when our army breaks away from Queen Chuang, what should we do?" Running to where?"

Yuan Shizhong seemed to have a budget in advance, and he only heard him reply: "Our division will run straight northwest to Yifeng and cross the river from Yikou. As long as we are not discovered by King Chuang within two days, we will be considered successful."

Liu Jingyi continued to ask with a slightly confused look on her face: "Ding Qirui is in the south. Even if we don't want to join him, we should go southwest to join Fengyang Zhu Dadian? But now we are heading east, and we don't know where we want to stay?"

Liu Yuchi interjected: "Xiangdong, surrender to Uncle Yongning."

"Uncle Yong Ning?"

Liu Jingyi asked with a puzzled look on her face: "But Zhang Cheng, the commander-in-chief of the Xuanfu?"

Yuan Shizhong replied: "Exactly."

"Zhang Cheng is far away in Xuan Mansion. Even if he is ordered to assist Henan, he should be in northern Henan. Now my army is heading east. Once King Chuang discovers it and pursues it with fine cavalry, Yongning Boyuan's water cannot quench his thirst, so what?"

"Brother Jingyi's concerns are not unreasonable."

Liu Yuchi calmly stroked the few beards on his chin and said leisurely: "The general and I have already been on the line with Uncle Yongning. Now a partial division of Uncle Yongning has arrived on the north bank of the river. Our division is waiting for us." When they arrive, they will cross the river to meet me and help me resist the pursuit of King Chuang's cavalry."

Liu Jingyi suddenly said sharply: "That day, someone asked the general to propose marriage to King Chuang, thinking it was a great idea. Today, my division has betrayed and left, how should we deal with this new lady?"

Yuan Shizhong said without hesitation: "I am determined to take her with me."

Liu Jingyi asked: "She is the adopted daughter of King Chuang and Mrs. Gao, and her love is more than flesh and blood. If she refuses to betray King Chuang, what should the general do?" Yuan Shizhong blurted out: "She has been considerate to me in every possible way recently. Naturally, we are a husband and wife. We must be together." Will go with me."

"No, no. The reason why the new lady loves the general is because the general vowed to protect King Chuang and conquer the world. Once the general betrays King Chuang, there is no guarantee that the husband and wife will not turn against each other and become enemies!"

"This one……"

Yuan Shizhong was at a loss for words because of what he said. He hesitated and couldn't answer. Fortunately, deputy military advisor Zhu Chengju intervened at the right time and said: "Brother Jingyi, don't worry too much about this matter. Before leaving, we can use our words to coax her to come with us." Let’s go on the road, and when the new lady realizes that it has become a fact, she cannot help but follow the general and betray King Chuang.”

"No. According to my opinion, although King Chuang is much closer to my little Yuanying than before, he does not really regard me as a confidant. He will definitely monitor our movements at all times. Once he discovers that our division is moving, he will send a large army to chase us. A massacre.

At that time, King Chuang's soldiers arrived, and a melee broke out between the two sides. What should the new lady do if she was willing to be the one inside? "

Yuan Shizhong said categorically: "She is already married, and our love is as deep as a mountain. I don't think she will betray me."

"I don't think so..."

Liu Jingyi sneered and continued: "Even if the new lady is unwilling to betray the general, then the four to five hundred male and female soldiers around her are all from Chuang Wang's house. It is not up to the new lady to make the decision. If they support King Chuang together, then what will happen? How to deal with it?”

Yuan Shizhong was speechless again: "This...this..."

Liu Yuchi knew that he could no longer remain silent, so he stood up and said with a stern look: "As a last resort, a strong man can only cut off his wrist, there is no other way!"

After hearing this, Liu Jing said coldly: "It may not be that simple!"

Yuan Shizhong didn't want the two of them to quarrel, so he quickly waved his hand and said: "It's almost the fourth watch. Let's go to bed. We will discuss this matter tomorrow."

…………

Yuan Shizhong walked towards the incense tent with great anxiety, but saw Liu Yuchi chasing him from behind. After Yuan Shizhong dismissed his personal guards, he whispered to him: "Yuchi, Jingyi's concerns are not unreasonable, but what's the matter?" Any idea to solve it?"

Liu Yuchi whispered back to him: "General, please behave as usual in front of Madam. Don't show the slightest sign."

Yuan Shizhong nodded solemnly and said, "What if she really... ugh... I can't bear it..."

"General, there is no need to worry about it. We will discuss this later."

Liu Yuchi whispered: "From tonight on, the general must treat her well so that she will not be suspicious at all. Our division does not have to stay in Qixian for two days. We will leave tomorrow night. Only in this way can we surprise others." King Chuang was unexpected."

"I understand...I understand all these...but..."

"General, you must not show kindness to women at this time. Just like Shao Shixin, he is a good party member. Before our army leaves tomorrow night, we must try to get rid of him without telling my wife."

"Okay... you can just arrange this directly!"

"General, please rest assured about everything in the future. Not only is Yong Ningbo involved, Master Tang of Suizhou also has a hometown friendship with Governor Ding, and they are family friends. He is also willing to try his best to speak for the general in front of Governor Ding."

"Oh...you also talked about this with him when you went to Suizhou to deploy the city?"

"Please forgive me, General. Yu Chi is good at making opinions. I did discuss this matter with Mr. Tang in private."

"Hey...why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"It's nothing more than creating an extra good relationship for me, little Yuan Ying, and preparing an extra way out."

"I really admire how thoughtful you are!"

Liu Yuchi did not dare to answer Yuan Shizhong's words. He bowed and turned around to leave. Seeing him like this, Yuan Shizhong was startled for a moment. After a while, he shook his head and ran towards the incense tent where Huimei was.

…………

In the early morning of the next day, Yuan Shizhong did not disturb Huimei in order to deploy the military. After he got up quietly, he looked at Huimei's beautiful face on the bed and said in his heart: "As long as you are willing to follow me wholeheartedly, I will never be cruel to you." !”

While Yuan Shizhong continued to send people to Zhuxian Town to transport the collected grain and grass to the old camp of the Chuang Army, he also secretly mobilized 30,000 troops from Xiaoyuan Camp to the vicinity of Qixian County, and secretly discussed all contingency plans with his trusted advisors and leaders. Policy.

After dinner that day, Yuan Shizhong sent his confidant Yuan Shiyou of the Chinese Army to tell Huimei, asking him to make preparations quickly. The second largest army would set off and leave Qixian tonight.

After hearing the news, Huimei was very excited in her heart and asked with a smile: "Didn't Prince Chuang give Xiao Yuanying two days' leave? Why did the army rush off to Kaifeng?"

Yuan Shiyou replied respectfully: "Back to Madam, the Generalissimo issued an urgent message, saying that there was an unexpected military situation, and ordered me, Xiao Yuanying, not to go to Kaifeng to join forces for the time being, but to quickly prepare and be on standby, preparing to intercept the incoming reinforcements."

Although Huimei had a suspicion in her heart, she did not expect that Yuan Shizhong would betray King Chuang and leave. While she ordered "Xiaochuang Camp" to prepare quickly, she sent someone to find Shao Shixin.

Shao Shixin heard Huimei's call and hurried over to ask what his orders were. Huimei said to him: "Brother Shao, the military situation is urgent. I don't know if there are any other changes inside. You can stay with me for the time being so that we can discuss and deal with it at any time."

"Madam, Military Master Liu sent someone to summon me. I don't know what I have to say."

"Ah... you should go there first and see what Military Master Liu has to say."

But when Shao Shixin walked out of the second door, Huimei regretted it. He sent someone to call Shao Shixin back quickly and said to him: "Brother Shao, the situation tonight is a bit special. Before the situation is clear, you don't want to go anywhere. It doesn’t matter if he is a military advisor or not!

For these two days, you will stay in our 'Xiao Chuang Camp' so that you can come up with an idea with me if something happens. "

The male and female soldiers of "Xiao Chuang Camp" took action together, and soon they were all ready to set off with the army at any time.

However, Yuan Shizhong hurried over at this moment and handed an urgent manuscript to Huimei in the bedroom. Looking carefully at the handwriting on it, there was no doubt that it was the handwriting of King Chuang. The manuscript read: "The handwriting of the Grand Marshal: Qing De According to reports, Ding Qirui gathered Zuo Liangyu's troops of about 100,000 men and marched north from Runing Prefecture to rescue Kaifeng; Zhang Fuzhen also gathered about tens of thousands of troops from Xuanfu's border troops and came south from Dongming and Caozhou.

After the special order Yuan Shizhong received this order, he immediately led the 30,000 soldiers of Xiao Yuan's battalion to the north quickly and rushed to Lanyang, Yifeng and Kaocheng to garrison the front lines to block Zhang Fuzhen's troops from the north and make sure they could not cross. Cross the river.

If necessary, the entire battalion can cross the river and go to the north bank to contain Zhang Fuzhen's officers and soldiers so that they cannot come to aid Kaifeng. The Generalissimo will choose the opportunity to send another large army, run a long distance, join forces to attack them, and annihilate them all. Be sure to follow it! "

Seeing this, Huimei no longer had any doubts, and asked excitedly: "Husband, when will we set off?"

"Get ready, set off immediately!"

When Huimei heard this, she turned to the window and shouted loudly: "Send my order to the general, and the men and women will immediately form a team and march out with the army, preparing to meet and suppress the officers and soldiers."

Seeing her like this, Yuan Shizhong couldn't help but feel faintly in his heart. He opened his mouth and reluctantly advised: "If you feel that you are not in good health, you can lead your men and women soldiers back to the old manor to recuperate temporarily, and then come back after giving birth. There is no need to go out with me to meet the officials." Army combat."

Huimei was stunned for a moment, then said to him: "What are you talking about? You and I should be of the same mind as husband and wife. Now that we are going to fight against the army, how can I be separated from you!"

Yuan Shizhong nodded with a complicated expression, but said to Huimei in a sincere tone: "It's okay if you stay with me. I have selected two thousand elite soldiers, both infantry and cavalry, to guard you in front and behind the Xiaochuang Camp. Even if Even if there is a scuffle with the army, you will be safe."

"Huh, I'm not a papery female general!"

After the first watch, Xiao Yuan's 30,000-strong army wrapped Huimei's "Xiao Chuang Camp" in the middle, and hurriedly set off towards the entire division, heading northeast.

After all, Shao Shixin was older than everyone else and had always been wary of Yuan Shizhong. At this moment, he had an extra thought. He secretly left a soldier disguised as a refugee and hid in Qixian City. He also sewed a note into his clothes and said He said to him: "After the army leaves, you quickly run to Zhuxian Town, find the old man, and be sure to present the note hidden in your clothes to King Chuang!" (End of Chapter)