"Your Highness, keep your head down!" Lahudo wanted to press down the head of the king of Zhennan, who was holding his head high, but he didn't dare, so he could only plead in a low voice.

"How can this little thief not believe his words, this king wants to see what they have to do!" But he refused, hating and hating.

Thinking that in order to show favor and win time for the situation to change, he took out a lot of real money. But two days ago, it was only because the bastard of Zahuertai rashly attacked the Song army that the thief stopped the peace talks, so that he paid for the horse to ease up a little, and promised the two sides to continue the peace talks. However, this morning, someone came to report that the soldiers and civilians captured by the Song army in the middle of the city were demolishing the old city and piling up the earth to build a platform, as if they were going to set up artillery bombardment on it.

Tuhuan was shocked when he heard this, he had seen the power of the Southern Army's artillery, and the firing range could reach two miles, if they built a fort in Jiacheng, then not to mention their own palace, even more than half of Yangzhou City was covered, which was equivalent to hanging a thunder on his head. If the thief was not happy, he would throw the thunder on his head, and this was repaid, so he went up to the city early in the morning to check it out himself.

"Your Highness, you still have to be careful, there is a Southern Army marksman hidden in the city, specializing in secretly sniping generals, if Your Highness is plotted, how can the little one explain to the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the city!" Lahudo said softly, as if he was afraid that the loud voice would alarm the enemy marksmen and attract their shots, and he did not dare to wear armor when he went to the city, so he could only wear iron armor on the inside and leather armor on the outside to pretend to be a small soldier. But this lord is good, dressed like a rooster, wearing a golden helmet, wearing gold armor, and wearing a mink fur, anyone who looks at it is a high-ranking official, isn't that a bullet!

"Are you afraid of anything? We also have Condor Shooters, so why don't we send them into battle to shoot them! Although Tuhuan didn't dodge with a cat's waist, he also took a step back, hid his body under the battlement, and asked with a straight face.

"Your Highness, it's not that the minions are unwilling, but that the muskets of the Southern Army have a long range, and they can penetrate the heavy armor at a distance of a hundred paces, and they are all hiding two hundred steps away. Although our condor archers are good at shooting, even if they use a three-stone strong bow, they still can't compare, and even if they shoot, it is difficult to penetrate the armor, but they were killed by the Southern Army because they exposed their bodies. Lahudo said with a sad face.

He also felt aggrieved, the shooters of the Southern army were sitting or lying in the dark, and if they did not fire, they would not be able to find out. On the other hand, their own condor archers need to stand tall to draw their bows, and they are often found before they can shoot their arrows and are killed by the Southern army. The two sides fought many times, but they all ended in death or serious injury, and they did not take advantage of the slightest, otherwise there would be no need to shrink their heads and brains.

"Huh?! The enemy army is so rampant, you have to try to get rid of them, otherwise it will affect the morale of the army! What a clever man he was, he immediately understood the severity, and asked the guards to raise their shields in front of them, adding a double protection to themselves, and then moved behind the curtain erected on the city, and looked out through the battlements.

This kind of cloth curtain is only one of the many ways of defensive city defense equipment, including wooden curtains, cloth curtains, leather curtains, etc., which are hung on the outside of the battlements, and the bamboo stands, wooden stands, grate fences, leather bamboo fences, city protection shields and other blocking instruments erected on the city wall to block the arrows and stones shot by the besieging enemy; The curtain was hung eight feet in the air outside the female wall of the city with a bamboo pole, and if the stone hit the curtain, it would fall to the ground because it was blocked.

In the face of the sharp artillery fire of the Song army, they could only use this method in order to block the incoming shells, and it is difficult to say whether they can block it, but at least they have some psychological comfort. Without this thin layer of cloth curtains, the soldiers defending the city did not dare to stay in the city, lest they be hit by the artillery fire and cold guns of the Song army.

"The Song army must be prevented from continuing to build the high platform, otherwise the city will be shelled, and it will definitely be a great chaos in the people's hearts!" Although the curtain covered the city wall very tightly, there were finally some gaps that could be peeked out, and Tuhuan observed for a moment and gasped for a while. The several high platforms that the Song army is building now are now more than half of the city wall, but they still have no intention of stopping the work, and they are still constantly increasing their heights, once the high platform exceeds the city wall, they can overlook the whole city, and they can clearly see their city defense deployment and troop deployment, and with the range of their artillery, they almost want to hit wherever they want.

"Your Highness, our bow and crossbow have a short range, and the high platform is far away from a stone's throw away, and the minions are really powerless!" Rakhudo listened and hurriedly explained.

"Is there no other way?" Tuohuan twisted his face and asked again dissatisfiedly.

"Your Highness, crossbows and trebuchets can hit high platforms, but these things are very bulky, and if they can't be evacuated in time after launching, they will be destroyed by the artillery of the Song army. Until the last resort, the minions really dare not use it! Lahudo replied timidly.

"Those things are not easy to make, and it is best not to use them if the Song army is not attacking the city." Tuhuan thought for a moment and said.

"Your Highness, then the minions immediately gather the dead soldiers, and tonight take advantage of their sleep to go down the city, kill and disperse the servants who built the platform, and destroy the high platform!" Lahu pondered for a while, and then offered another plan.

"Waste, this king has just appeased the fool of Zahuertai, if he uses swords and soldiers again, the thief will definitely take advantage of this reason to attack the city, and I am afraid that it will not be able to solve it by sending some gold, silver, and horses." After hearing this, he immediately reprimanded with a black face.

"Your Highness, the slave is stupid, please ask Your Highness for advice!" Seeing this, Lahudo was startled, and said with a bitter face.

"At the moment, we can only use the old way, send money and bribes, and let them stop building the city!" Dehuan said helplessly.

"Your Highness, the slave sees that the thief is greedy, we have sent so much gold and silver, and the horses are difficult to satisfy his appetite, and those war horses are all requisitioned from various armies, which has made them dissatisfied, if they are requisitioned again, I am afraid that there will be resentment." Rakhudo frowned. Naturally, the king of Zhennan will not do these trivial things such as asking for money and things, and it is still them who are slaves who offend people, and it is already reluctant to ask for a horse last time, and if you don't get it right, you should be beaten.

"Whoever refuses to accept the levy will stop allocating his food and grass. Do you want to know how much grain a horse eats every day? One day he killed horses to satisfy his hunger, and it was better to send it to the southern army for some time. "Tuhuan is really unwilling to go to war with the little emperor of the Southern Dynasty, before he was still a milky child, only occupying the land of Qiongzhou, with a population of less than one million, he can fight all over the ground looking for teeth. Now it occupies the entire rich Jiangnan, with a population of tens of millions, and it is different from the original heaven and earth, and he still wants to defeat the time than to ascend to the sky. And if the city is breached, he will not spend money to avoid disasters, but will have to be raided and exterminated.

'Bang! ’

......Just as the two of them were trying to figure out what to do, suddenly there was a muffled sound in the distance, and one of the guards who was raising their shield in front of Tuohuan screamed and fell on the battlements.

"......" A blood mist spewed out, splashing Tuohuan's face, but he reacted quickly, and immediately hid under the wall, and with a slight twist of his face, he saw the guards who were lying crooked, only to see that the big shield thrown on the side was pierced, and there was a hole the size of a wine bowl on his back, which was bubbling with blood. Obviously, the bullet pierced through the shield and then through the guard's armor and then through his body, thinking that if he hadn't been hiding behind, I'm afraid he would be lying here.

"Xiacheng, Xiacheng......" Lahu was shocked, realizing that they had been here for too long, which attracted the attention of the Song army's marksman, so he fired a shot at the figure that was faintly visible behind the curtain, and hurriedly picked up the weak-legged Zhennan Wang, and dragged the guard, who was shot, down to the city.

"Can you still live?" When he arrived at the city, he relieved himself, looked at his wounded guards and asked the military doctor who came in a hurry.

"Your Highness, he was shot through the chest and injured his lungs, I'm afraid he won't survive!" The military doctor asked him to rip off his armor, and a blood hole was still spraying blood mist with his breath, and then he looked at the person's pale face, blood kept gushing out of his mouth, and he replied with a sigh.

"Bury him well, and allocate more money to his family!" Tuhuan also sighed, watching the guards who accompanied him day and night die in front of him, and looked at Lahuduo and said, "Please Ma Youcheng hurry to the palace to discuss matters!" ”……

Ma Shao in the house has been sitting in the house for a morning, a cup of hot tea has turned into herbal tea, he only feels that he is holding his breath in his chest, and he can't spit it out anyway, as if he has gasped for breath in a suppressed manner. He really couldn't believe that he could actually do something to bribe, which was the most despised thing in the past, thinking that only those shameless villains could do it, but now he not only did it, but also found his heart to do it.

When the little emperor of the Southern Dynasty handed over the peace matters to his subordinate Zhuang Gong, Ma Shao thought that he could be reused by the little emperor, and he was born as a scholar, so he must be a person who cherishes his reputation and treats money like dung. And at the beginning, as he thought, in order to be able to convey what Song Ying saw and the content of the negotiation, he could only give him a lot of money according to the idea of Dehuan, but he sternly refused.

After returning to the city, Tuhuan smiled, laughed at the temper of the literati he didn't understand, and gave Ma Shao two painting scrolls and an inkstone, asking him to try again tomorrow. When he went back, he opened it and found that the two paintings were actually painted by Emperor Huizong of the Southern Dynasty, and the inkstone should be the inscription of the scholar Su Shi according to him, which are rare things and can be said to be priceless treasures.

These three things, Ma Shao played and appreciated for a long time, couldn't put it down, and actually gave birth to the mind of wanting to keep it for himself. But he also soon woke up, these elegant things are not something that every scholar can refuse, it seems that it is not that he does not accept bribes, but that the things he sent are wrong. When they met again the next day, he only 'accidentally' mentioned that he had two former palace treasures in his hands, and he didn't know whether they were true or false, so he asked Zhuang Gong to identify them, so he sent them out.

He didn't mention it again, and he didn't ask about it himself, but he acquiesced in sending a messenger to the capital, and gave them a token to enter and leave the camp. Later, at the cost of 3,000 war horses, he calmed the anger of the little emperor, and of course secretly sent a few 'ink treasures'. Although the task was completed, Ma Shao still couldn't get over this hurdle in his heart because of his own methods, and while feeling aggrieved, he was also angry about his own depravity!