When Wang Zhao's errand officer found Duan Zixing, Duan Zixing, who was quite responsible, was inspecting the breakfast meal of the defenders, and found that the amount of rice and sauce was insufficient. It happened that the people sent by Wang Zhao found Duan Zixing, and Duan Zixing changed his mind again, personally detained the unlucky official who withheld food, and rushed back to the county temple to meet Wang Zhao together.

After temporarily detaining the unlucky official under the hall, he had just gone to the hall of the county temple, and Duan Zixing found that something was wrong, and his boss Wang Zhao, who had always been difficult to deal with, had a more ugly face than usual, and the new left lieutenant Lu Fa, who had a holiday with him, stood aside with low eyebrows, and when he nodded and smiled at himself, his smile seemed to be a little unkind. And when Duan Zixing stepped forward to salute Wang Zhao, Wang Zhao didn't even return the salute politely, and shouted as soon as he took the case: "Duan Zixing, where did you go last night?" ”

"Where did the Subordinate go last night?" Duan Zixing was stunned, and then replied truthfully: "Back to the county honor, the subordinate was worried about the thieves taking advantage of the black attack last night, and he has been living in the county temple, during which he went to the city twice to inspect the night defense situation, and in addition, the subordinate has never been anywhere." ”

"What did you do when you went to the city besides patrolling the city?" Wang Zhao asked again.

"What else did you do?" Wang Zhao tried hard to recall, and only replied after a while: "Back to the county honor, the subordinate reprimanded a lazy and dozing chief, and did nothing else. ”

"Really?" Wang Zhao sneered, and suddenly said: "But how did this official hear, Wang Xiancheng, you also quietly released an arrow outside the city, and there are no thieves outside the city who are blind in the black light, what are you doing with the arrow outside the city?" ”

"The subordinates are firing arrows outside the city?" Duan Zixing was a little dumbfounded, and asked in surprise: "County Zun, who said that the subordinates released arrows outside the city?" How come I don't know? ”

"How dare you pretend to be with this official?!" Wang Zhao was furious, and he took a few shots again, and shouted: "Come on, give the joke to the official to take it down!" ”

"No." The errand officer who was on the errand in the hall of the county temple was very obedient, and immediately came up to get people, but Duan Zixing was shocked and angry, and hurriedly shouted: "Wait! County honor, what crime did the subordinate commit, and why did he take down the subordinate officer? ”

"Take it!" Wang Zhao didn't answer, but once again urged the messenger to take people, and the messenger in the hall didn't dare to slack off, so he hurriedly stepped forward to copy the paragraph with both hands and held it down hard, and then it was also at this time that Wang Zhao was trying to see the dagger, picked up the arrow book that Lu Fa had sent before, and asked loudly: "Since you didn't put arrows on the city last night, where did this arrow book you wrote come from?" ”

"My handwritten arrow book?" Duan Zixing almost suspected that his ears had heard it wrong, and hurriedly said: "County Zun, when did the subordinate write the arrow book himself, why didn't the subordinate know it?" What is written on it, can you let the subordinates see it? ”

Now that the joker has been held down, Wang Zhao also gave him this opportunity, and said to his only cronie in the officialdom, Lu Fa, who understood, and hurriedly stepped forward to respectfully take the arrow book, and took it to the Duan Zixing, who had reprimanded him more than once, and unfolded it, so that Duan Zixing could watch the content of the arrow book. As a result, like Wang Zhao before, he only roughly saw the handwriting on the arrow book clearly, and Duan Zixing was immediately taken aback, and said secretly: "It's really a bit like my handwriting, but when did I write this letter?" ”

After taking a closer look at the content of the letter, Duan Zixing finally understood why Wang Zhao was angry and ordered to take down himself, it turned out that this handwriting was very similar to Duan Zixing's letter, the letter writer tried to get in touch with Xiang Kang, the chief general of the young marshal army, as Duan Zixing, saying that Duan Zixing had long been dissatisfied with the cruelty and greed of his boss Wang Zhao, and was incompetent and incompetent, and intended to steal the city gate to welcome the young marshal army into the city, and presented the head of the county seat and Wang Zhao as a meeting gift to Xiang Kang, in exchange for Xiang Kang's acceptance and appointment. It's just that Duan Zixing was worried that Xiang Kang would not believe in his sincerity in dedicating the city, so he agreed with Xiang Kang that if Xiang Kang agreed to accept his surrender, he would let the young marshal army send someone to the city today with three blank flags as a signal to tell him that he could do it, and then he would quietly open the east gate at the third watch tonight to welcome the young marshal army into the city.

After reading this serious nonsense letter, Duan Zixing took a little effort to come back to his senses, and hurriedly shouted: "County Zun, this letter is fake, it is someone else's imitation of the handwriting of the subordinates, forged letters, the purpose is to frame the subordinates, and to separate the relationship between the subordinates and the county zun, please check the county, please check the county!" ”

"Things have come to this point, of course you say it's fake." Wang Zhao sneered, and said very sadly: "Duan Zi Xing, Duan Zi Xing, this official has been with your colleagues for many years, even if there is no personal relationship, there is a old friendship, right?" I can't imagine that for the sake of your glory and wealth, you are greedy for life and afraid of death, and you actually try to slander the official so much to the thieves, and you also try to sacrifice the city and the head of the official to the thieves. ”

"Wronged! Wronged! The unlucky Duan Zixing hurriedly shouted injustice and said loudly: "County Zun, you check clearly, this letter is really not written by the subordinates, although the handwriting on it is very similar to the handwriting of the subordinates, but there are obviously a lot of traces of forgery, the county Zun, as long as you take the previous documents of the lower officials to compare, the truth will be revealed immediately!" ”

"No comparison." Wang Zhao sneered and said: "This is really your cleverness, deliberately writing some words a little different from usual, and then even if the letter accidentally falls into the hands of this official, you can rely on this point to deny it!" You say it yourself, isn't that so?! ”

Duan Zixing wanted to cry without tears, but he never thought that Wang Zhao could still have this kind of god-like reasoning - there were traces of forgery in his handwriting, which turned out to be deliberately done by himself, ready to be used as an excuse for denying and not admitting his account! However, it was a matter of life, Duan Zixing still struggled and shouted: "County Zun, wronged, the subordinates are really wronged!" The subordinates were loyal to the Great Qin court, how could they secretly contact the thieves and prepare to dedicate the city to the thieves? Please check clearly, please respect the county, you must check clearly! ”

"Of course this official will find out." Wang Zhao sneered, and shouted: "Put Duan Zixing in prison, and after the official finds out what happened and gets the ironclad evidence of his collaboration with the enemy and treason, he will be punished in a canonical manner to set an example!" ”

In accordance with Wang Zhao's order, the court officials escorted Duan Zixing and left, and the innocent and wronged Duan Zixing yelled, but it had no effect. But fortunately, Duan Zixing's luck is not bad, when he was just pushed down the lobby, he happened to have a good relationship with him, and the right lieutenant Bao Wen came in from outside the county temple, Duan Zixing hurriedly shouted to Bowen for help, Bowen was also surprised to see his friend detained, and hurriedly came over to inquire about the reason, Duan Zixing hurriedly told Bowen what happened, Bowen was even more shocked when he heard it, and hurriedly said to the messenger who escorted Duan Zixing: "You wait a while, I'll go in and ask for mercy for Duan Xiancheng, see if the county can take back his life, don't rush to take Duan Xiancheng back to prison." ”

Bao Wen was born in a big family, and the influence of the family power in the city is quite small, of course, the errand officer who escorted Duan Zixing did not dare not give him this face, and immediately nodded together in agreement. But it's a pity that after Bao Wen went to court, he argued with Wang Zhao for a long time, and even quarreled, but finally returned to Duan Zixing dejectedly, and said helplessly: "Brother Duan, I'm sorry, I tried my best, but the county didn't listen to anything, and you also know his temper, I really have no choice, I can only wronged you to squat in prison for a few days." ”

After finishing speaking, Bowen hurriedly comforted: "But don't worry, no matter what you think, I will return your innocence, and I will never let you suffer wrongly." ”

I already knew that Wang Zhao's bear temper was stupid, and no one could stop it, and of course Duan Zixing couldn't blame his friend for his poor rescue, so he could only moan in pain: "Who did I offend?" Who hates me so much? How did you set up such a poisonous scheme to frame me? ”

"It's only possible for two people to do that." Bowen said with a gloomy face: "The first is Lu Fa, who has always been at odds with us, and the second is Xiang Kang, the leader of the thieves outside the city, in order to disturb our worries and create opportunities for him to take advantage of the chaos to attack the city, so he deliberately designed to frame you." ”

Duan Zixing thought about it carefully, Bao Wen sighed again, and said with a wry smile: "Look at it, the excitement is still behind, you may not know it, the reason why I came here is because Xiang Kang, the traitor, sent a lot of troops that we were worried about to surrender to the city, persuaded our soldiers in the city to open the city gate and surrender to him quickly, and also persuaded our soldiers to directly kill the county order, and take the head of the county order there in exchange for a heavy reward, if someone really wavered, it would be a big trouble." ”

When Duan Zixing also let out a wry smile, Wang Zhao and Lu Fa had already led a team of messengers out of the lobby in a hurry, and seeing that Duan Zixing had still not been escorted away, Wang Zhao was of course furious, and the officers had no choice but to quickly escort Duan Zixing to the county jail for detention. And then, Lu Fa found the unlucky official who was greedy for ink and grain and grass who was escorted by Duan Zixing, and after asking the reason, Lu Fa just begged for mercy for his subordinates, Wang Zhao immediately waved his hand and ordered to release the people, Bowen was angry and rushed to leave.

The reason why Wang Zhao and Lu Fa led a team of soldiers to hurry out was because Xiang Kang sent troops to the city to recruit surrenders, and Wang Zhao was not at ease, so he decided to go to the scene to check it out in person. And when Wang Zhao led the people to hurriedly board the east gate of the city, there were really dozens of soldiers outside the city gate who were shouting loudly, desperately persuading the defenders of the city to rebel and sacrifice the city, Wang Zhao was furious, and immediately ordered the defenders to release arrows to expel them, but the distance was too far, the effect was not great, even if the troops outside the city were forced to flee away, they soon turned around and shouted again, and so on, Wang Zhao jumped like thunder, but there was nothing to do.

Xiang Kang sent a soldier to the city to persuade him to surrender, and no one knows whether it had any effect, but when the small and popular county Cheng Duan Zixing was detained and imprisoned by Wang Zhao gradually spread, it quickly caused a sensation among the soldiers and soldiers, especially after seeing the ink officials who withheld their rations swaggering back to the room and continuing to be in charge of the rations distribution of the defenders, the soldiers were even more furious, and they were resentful of the already unpopular Wang Zhao. There are even many worried soldiers who think that Duan Zixing offended Wang Zhao because he fought for rations for himself, so he was imprisoned by Wang Zhao! And when such rumors gradually spread among the army, the morale of the defenders was inevitably even lowered, and quite a few people had the idea of laying down their arms and surrendering as soon as the young marshal's army broke through the city.

…………

Xiang Kang's side, there is no God's perspective, and there is a city wall to block and unable to send someone to investigate, of course Xiang Kang does not know the change in the mentality of the defenders, let alone that his plan to chaos the enemy has been initially successful, plus the defenders are only holding on to the city, and they have not sent scouts out of the city to reconnoiter the enemy's situation, Xiang Kang just wants the young marshal soldiers to scratch their tongues and ask for a confession, so the other fake book written in advance is temporarily useless.

"Why didn't you even send out a scout? I don't know what the situation is going on in the city, what should I do next? ”

Walking slowly around the big tent of the Chinese army with his hands behind his back, Xiang Kang was thinking in his heart about how to break through the damn city wall and enter the city to seize the county seat, but he didn't know the change of the enemy's situation, and it was already difficult to use the plan, and he once wanted to launch an attack on the city in accordance with the righteousness of the soldiers, but considering the pitiful combat effectiveness of the young marshal's army, as well as the morale of the army affected by the setback of the siege, it took a long time to attack the city regularly, but Xiang Kang couldn't make up his mind. I hesitated and hesitated.

Originally, I was a little anxious, and the children of the Xiang family, led by Xiang Zhuang and Xiang Sheng, came to urge them again, and they all said to Xiang Kang: "Young marshal, when will you launch an attack on the city?" How to fight this siege war? Isn't it time to make up your mind? We only have seven days left for food and grass, and if we don't hurry up and find a way to attack the city, I am afraid that there will not be enough time. ”

After hesitating for a moment, Xiang Kang asked, "Brother, if you are asked to launch an attack with the army, how sure are you that you will capture the city?" ”

After discussing it in a low voice, Xiang Zhuang replied: "We are a little sure, we are not sure, but we think that we have to give it a try, otherwise, just sit like this, and we will definitely never be able to take it down, and only by giving it a try can we have hope." ”

If it was replaced by other army commanders, nine out of ten would probably have agreed to the suggestion of trying, but Xiang Kang was one of the others, believing that he would not fight uncertain battles, and he was not willing to risk the precious lives of his soldiers at will, so Xiang Kang still hesitated, saying that he was unwilling to risk attacking the city without any certainty. And after thinking about it for a long time, Xiang Kang asked again: "What is the reaction of the soldiers below you?" ”

"The morale is very high, and they are all counting on rushing into the city to make a fortune." Xiang Zhuang replied: "Especially those relatives who are worried about the city want to go into the city quickly and rescue their relatives in the city." ”

The morale is available, Xiang Kang is somewhat sure in his heart, and after thinking about it again, Xiang Kang replied: "Go back and tell the soldiers, just tell them to be ready, keep their spirits ready to go into battle to kill the enemy, and within three or two days, we will launch a siege." ”

The children of the Xiang family agreed one after another, so they left together, and then after all the children of the Xiang family said goodbye and left, Zhou Zengcai next to him said: "Young marshal, our generals and soldiers are eager to fight, and morale is available, don't you need to worry too much, try to attack the city head-on." ”

"It's because of the high morale that I can't take risks." Xiang Kang replied: "This is the first city we have officially attacked since we started our army, and the first time we have attacked the city, we must not make any mistakes, otherwise once we are defeated, our soldiers will be afraid of attacking the city and attacking the fortified city, which is not conducive to our future attack on other violent Qin cities." ”

"But we don't have any other way but to attack head-on?" Zhou Zeng said: "The letters inciting the rebellion of the defenders have been shot into the city, and the strategy of dividing the enemy has also been used, but because of the barrier of the city wall, the enemy does not send scouts out of the city to patrol and catch prisoners, we don't know what kind of effect we have received, and what can we do to continue to win by surprise?" ”

"Wait!" Xiang Kang replied very directly, and said: "Anyway, it will take a little time to build siege weapons, let's wait a little longer, I won't believe it, the tyrannical Qin army that is worried about it will really be a turtle with a shrunken head for the rest of its life, and it will only hide in the city forever and never leave the city!" Wait a little longer, and when I find a way to figure out the enemy's situation, it's not too late to launch a siege! ”

With this idea in mind, Xiang Kang issued another order to send three squads carrying drums and gongs to sneak outside the three gates of the east and west south of the city at night, beating gongs and drums every once in a while to disturb the enemy, so that the enemy could not sleep at night, exhaust the enemy's mental state, and also try to lure the enemy to expel the troops, creating a plan for the self-army to grab the tongue and ask for a confession. At the same time, Xiang Kang arranged three cantonment teams for these three drum and gong teams to respond, and explained to them that once an enemy leaves the city, no matter what method he thinks, he must catch him alive, even if it is one! Catch one, bounty fourteen!

After gradually becoming Xiang Kang's signboard to harass the enemy again, that night, the defenders on the city were of course unlucky, and they were awakened by the sound of drums and gongs soon after they fell asleep, and they were forced to get up to prevent the young marshal army from taking the opportunity to steal the city, and because they were afraid that the young marshal army would suddenly come to the middle of the ten vacations, they did not dare to take it lightly every time, and every time they had to get up to prepare for war, the generals and soldiers complained bitterly, and Wang Zhao and others in the temple were also unable to sleep, for fear that the young marshal's army would suddenly really launch a siege, and the top and bottom were in pain.

Then, as Xiang Kang hoped, when they couldn't stand the harassment of the young marshal's army, the worried defenders on the south gate really quietly lowered twenty people with ropes, and suddenly attacked the young marshal army squad that ran to the edge of the moat and beat gongs and drums. Seeing this scene, Xiang Kang arranged for the cantonment team responsible for receiving the drum and gong team, of course, to take the opportunity to attack, shouting and killing the enemy.

This small-scale contact battle ended quickly, and the weak Qin army quickly collapsed under the impact of the young marshal's army cantonment, and fled to the south gate of the city in embarrassment, grabbing the rope and climbing the city to escape for their lives, and the young marshal's army cantonment team in addition to killing two enemies in the fierce battle, it also successfully captured two Qin army prisoners who were wounded and surrendered!

"I surrender, I surrender, don't kill me."

When they threw their weapons and knelt on the ground to surrender, the two injured Qin soldiers were hoarse and trembling all over, for fear that the red-eyed young marshal soldiers would kill them with a knife, but to the surprise of these two Qin soldiers, not only did the surrounding young marshal soldiers not rush up to kill them, but they pounced on them like a pervert seeing a beautiful woman, and directly hugged them, and shouted excitedly: "Fourteen gold!" Fourteen gold! My daughter-in-law! There is hope for me to marry a daughter-in-law! ”

"A strong man of the Young Marshal's Army." The two Qin soldiers were all scattered together, and they scrambled to wail: "We are men, we are men, we can't be your daughter-in-law, we can't be your daughter-in-law!" ”