How can I take Suining?

Hou Dagui has been thinking about this problem, and even after joining forces with Qin Jinxiao, he rejected Qin Jinxiao's suggestion to jointly station at the eastern end of Suining, and stationed not far outside the city of Suining with the front camp of the old army alone, always making a posture of attacking the county seat.

As he expected, the officers and soldiers of Suining did not act rashly, but during the period, they divided 200 people from the city and marched eastward, as if they wanted to open the road to Dingyuan County in the east, but Qin Jinxiao mercilessly blocked back. This temptation was deflated, and the officers and soldiers of Suining County put away their hearts in the field and concentrated on defending the city.

The snow is getting heavier and heavier, and Hou Dagui's heart is becoming more and more anxious. This morning, he received news that Zhao Dangshi had led his troops and horses to begin to move in the direction of Dingyuan County, and according to expectations, he would arrive in Dingyuan County within two days. Therefore, if you want to pull out the city and make meritorious contributions, there is not much time left for him.

Hou Dagui probed Qin Jinxiao's tone before, and found that he had no intention of attacking the city at all, and wanted to do his job well to ensure that Zhao Dangshi and others arrived in Dingyuan smoothly and then went to rendezvous. Therefore, the only force that can be used to attack the city is 2,000 men under his command.

However, he knew very well that with the 2,000 recruits in the front camp of the old army, let alone attacking the city on such a snowy day, he was afraid that he would not even be able to touch the walls. To tell the truth, thanks to the feint attack of the Suining official army before, it was to repel Qin Jinxiao and make him jealous, so he changed to the official army to his side, even if he fought in the field, Hou Dagui basically had no confidence to win.

Do you want to see this opportunity pass by?

Just when Hou Dagui felt powerless but a little unwilling, Hui Dengxiang found him. Hui Dengxiang was a staff officer of the front battalion, and since Bai Jiaolong was killed and Hou Dagui temporarily took up the post of the former battalion commander, he has been very close to Hou Dagui. This is because of the work relationship, and secondly, because Whitden wants to find a backer.

Previously, there was a soft and hard white dragon in the middle, and it was not convenient for Hui Dengxiang to flatter Hou Dagui, but now the two are directly related, and Hui Dengxiang began to display his flattering mastery. After more than ten years of hard work, he can go from being a grass guy to now, and he is still very good at pleasing his superiors.

Hou Dagui seems to have an eccentric temper and is difficult to approach, and in the eyes of the experienced Hui Dengxiang, he is just a layman who loves to wear a high hat and loves sex and money. Wine, wealth, this kind of thing, most people like it, but how to hit everyone's heart is very particular.

As far as Hou Dagui is concerned, Hui Dengxiang found that this person is the most famous. is so lustful that the whole army knows it, but he still doesn't look close to women. Therefore, Hui Dengxiang deliberately cooperated with him to put on a show, severely punished and reprimanded the soldiers who plundered the women, and released the women in public, but at night he sent people to catch up with the women who fled slowly, and chose the beautiful ones to be taken back to the camp to be worshiped by Hou Dagui. This move not only satisfied Hou Dagui's vanity, but also satisfied Hou Dagui's lust, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone. It is precisely with such an ability to observe words and emotions that Hui Dengxiang was able to gradually gain the favor of Hou Dagui, a powerful figure in Zhao Ying, and was slowly included in his "sphere of influence" by Hou Dagui.

As I said earlier, Hou Dagui has been secretly managing his own forces in order to consolidate his position. However, among the old generals of Zhao Ying, such as Guo Ruke and Bai Wang, they were basically dead set on Xu Hui, and he couldn't win it, and Bai Jiaolong, Wu Mingfeng and others were too old and slippery to rest assured, so he changed his strategy and began to deliberately recruit those "newcomers" who had not been attached for a long time to join his command. Such new recruits are often insecure in the camp and want to have something to rely on, and this is a good time for him to take advantage of the situation. With his status as "Zhao Ying's second-in-command" placed there, it naturally has a strong attraction to latecomers.

It's just that at the beginning, Hou Dagui didn't mean to woo Hui Dengxiang, the main reason was that Hui Dengxiang's previous reputation was too famous, and Hou Dagui was worried that he couldn't suppress him. Hui Dengxiang also knew Hou Dagui's scruples, so when he got along with Hou Dagui, he deliberately made a low and small, low eyebrows and pleasing to the eyes, and almost obeyed Hou Dagui's orders. At first, Hou Dagui was still wary of him, but after a long time, he got used to Hui Dengxiang's servile appearance, so he really began to relax his vigilance, thinking that Hui Dengxiang's confirmation was clear about the situation and obeyed him. As soon as this layer of heart defense was broken, Hui Deng made persistent efforts and met with his intentions, and the relationship between the two has grown by leaps and bounds, like the main minister.

wanted to fight Suining, except for Hui Dengxiang, Hou Dagui never talked about it with the second person. He secretly calculated it with Whitden a few days ago, but it didn't work out. Thinking about it alone today, I have no clue, so I want to summon my "right-hand man" to discuss it again, but Whitden took the initiative to come to the door on the contrary.

The wind and snow outside the tent were very heavy, as soon as Hui Dengxiang entered the tent and brought in the air conditioning, the originally warm tent immediately dispersed, and after shaking the snow on the cloak all over the ground, he walked to Hou Dagui and sat down cross-legged without any restraint, and said directly: "Hou Shuai, about Suining, my subordinates have something to say." The general soldier is commonly known as "Shuai" in colloquial language, just like Hou Liangzhu, who has been under Jiuquan, was called "Hou Shuai" during his lifetime. Hou Dagui is also surnamed Hou, although in the face of the public, he also pretends to be the same as Xu Hui, and humbly does not accept the title of "handsome", but he actually likes this compliment very much in his bones. What kind of person is Hui Dengxiang, how could he miss the fact that he can put sycophancy in his life, so he still calls Hou Dagui "chief soldier" in front of people, and he eagerly calls Hou Dagui "Hou Shuai" in the future.

"Say." Hou Dagui didn't look at him, and turned the fire on the stove with iron chopsticks, so that the wine on the stove could be warmed up faster.

Hui Dengxiang swallowed and said: "My subordinates think that Suining cannot be attacked. ”

"What are you talking about?" Hou Dagui's eyes slanted, so dissatisfied, "Let you go back and think about it, I thought about it all night, but you came up with this fart for me?" ”

"No, the subordinate hasn't finished yet." Hui Dengxiang seemed to have anticipated Hou Dagui's annoyance, and immediately added a sentence when he said it.

"If there's a fart, let it go!" The plan to attack the city has not been seen so far, Hou Dagui is in a very bad mood, and he is no longer warm wine, so he unhappily inserted the iron chopsticks into the ashes and clapped his hands.

Hui Dengxiang stared at the red-hot charcoal fire in the furnace, and said slowly: "My subordinates went back and thought about it carefully, Qin Qian always refused to help, only relying on my 2,000 people, the snow is thick and the walls are slippery and there are no siege equipment, if you want to take down the Suining County town defended by thousands of officers and soldiers in a short time, hope, hope is slim......"

He is really based on the analysis of the real situation, Hou Dagui is not stupid, and naturally understands that what he says is not bad. However, when he thought of the success of the meritorious service of breaking the city, he was still extremely unhappy, and couldn't help but spit into the fire, and immediately caused a scorching smell: "If you can't take Suining, you can't make merit, you can't make merit, how can I find a job for you in front of the lord?" Mmmm, you can figure it out yourself. ”

Although Zhao Dangshi took Hui Dengxiang, Xiong Wanjian, and Zhang Miaoshou under the account and gave them important positions, who didn't understand that for these three people who were equal to him in the past, Zhao Dangshi was bright and secret. Xiong and Zhang are better, although they are constrained by staff officers, but at least they have some real power against the head of Qian. But as the biggest of the three, Hui Dengxiang's situation was not as good as the two of them, and he only got the position of "staff officer". What is a staff officer? There is really no deputy position with military power. To put it mildly, Mr. Qian listens to you, you still have a place, Mr. Qian looks down on you, you have no right to speak in the camp, and the confidence is not even as good as the general manager and the general manager of Bai, who have soldiers in their hands.

At the beginning, when Bai Jiaolong was still there, Hui Dengxiang really felt all kinds of exclusion. Not only would he not be a counselor in the major military affairs of the battalion, but he also did not have any chance to interfere in the daily military regulations. Occasionally, in order to take care of Zhao Dangshi's face in setting up the position of "staff officer", Bai Jiaolong would call Hui Dengxiang to discuss, but every time it was a meeting, from the beginning to the end, Hui Dengxiang was like a mute who couldn't speak, and he didn't have a chance to express his opinion during the whole process. Even though he sometimes forcibly seized the opportunity to speak a word or two, Bai Jiaolong and the generals in the battalion still turned a deaf ear and were unaware. This kind of cold reception is naturally not something that Hui Dengxiang, who once dominated one side and led thousands of troops, could endure.

Therefore, when the news of Bai Jiaolong's death came, Whedeng, who had a sad face, was actually extremely happy in his heart. He breathed a sigh of relief when the mountain that was pressing on his head was gone, and at the same time he made up his mind to remind himself that he must not let another mountain press down on him. The reason why he killed Zhou Qing and voted for Zhao Ying without hesitation was to give himself another future. He still has ambitions, and he will never allow himself to wait for death and let others slaughter him, and he hopes to regain his former "glory" in Zhao's camp.

In order to achieve this goal, the first goal he set for himself was to turn the position of "staff officer" into reality.

After Bai Jiaolong was unfortunately killed, although there was Hou Dagui in the front battalion of this old army, Hou Dagui was also the commander of the Qian, but after all, Hou Dagui's main job was the general soldier, and he had a wide range of powers and responsibilities, and he could not personally manage the first battalion. And Hui Dengxiang, relying on Hou Dagui's trust, gradually took over all kinds of military affairs in the front camp in his own hands. It can be said that up to now, Hou Dagui has only retained the nominal concurrent position of the former battalion of the old army, and all kinds of military affairs in the actual battalion, no matter how big or small, have been firmly controlled by Hui Dengxiang. Therefore, this first goal of Whitden Xiang can be regarded as accomplished.

Now that he has the real power of the former battalion, Hui Dengxiang's next step is to make himself right. Considering that limiting one's military power was the policy set by Zhao Dangshi, the difficulty of achieving this goal was undoubtedly much higher than that of the former. However, for Hui Dengxiang, this is an important step in his "comeback" journey, and only by successfully taking this step can he have the opportunity to calmly seize more power.

On the other hand, for Hou Dagui, since he has regarded Hui Dengxiang as an "eagle dog" under his hands, then seeking real power for Hui Dengxiang is also a kind of strengthening of his own power. After all, Guo Ruke, Bai Wang and other generals who followed Xu Hui were all figures with real military power in the army, and Hou Dagui was unwilling to work hard for a long time, and all the people who were promoted and attracted to him were all broken households who had nothing and could only survive by sucking their own blood.

So how can we make Zhao Dangshi change his mind and be willing to relinquish power to Hui Dengxiang?

The two coincided, and they both thought of a way - meritorious service.

Zhao Dangshi set the rule of "meritocracy and meritocracy" in the camp very early, that is to say, as long as you have made real contributions to Zhao Ying, no matter what your background is, you will be promoted and rewarded. The most obvious example is the surrender of troops and generals from the imperial court. Hou Dagui and Hui Dengxiang both believe that as long as they have made a big enough meritorious service, there is no reason for Zhao Dangshi not to treat everyone equally. As the saying goes, "The monk can touch it, but I can't touch it?" In their opinion, compared with Wu Mingfeng, Pu Guoyi and other old generals of the imperial court who were forced to go to Liangshan, Zhao Dangshi should trust Hui Dengxiang and others, who were also born in Liukou.

This is also the reason why Hui Dengxiang wants to find Hou Dagui as a backer. Because looking at the current figures in Zhao Ying, he is the only one who can give him an upward channel and a chance to turn over.

Back to the present, in the face of Hou Dagui's cold questioning, Hui Dengxiang did not panic, and said his explanation without hurrying: "Hou Shuai, if you don't have the merit of pulling out the city, we may not be able to make other contributions." ”

Hou Dagui's thick eyebrows twitched, glared at him and said, "What do you mean?" ”

Hui Dengxiang sniffed, and said in a straight tone: "Before dawn, a Tang soldier came to report that Song Sima was found on the upper floor of the county seat. ”

"Song Sima?" Hou Dagui, who was originally leaning over, immediately stood up when he heard this, and said with surprise, "Didn't he accept it for Tan Daxiao, and now he should be in the northeast with the army, how can he be here?" ”

Whitden shook his head and said, "I'm confused, too, but that's not the point at the moment. According to the description of the Tang soldiers, the person who was suspected of being Song Sima was patrolling back and forth in the city with a red ribbon tied around his neck, isn't this Song Sima's signboard? ”

Song Sima is known to be afraid of the cold, and because of his slender neck, he tied a red belt to keep warm. Hou Dagui had made fun of him many times before for this, and when he heard Hui Dengxiang say such an obvious sign, he no longer doubted, nodded and said: "If you really see the red ribbon around your neck, it must be Song Sima's thief and bird." As he spoke, after a little contemplation, the originally happy expression suddenly decreased a lot, "I know what you mean by meritorious service, but this guy is guarding the city, and if you want to take him, you can't break through the county seat?" So, what's the difference! ”

Looking at Hou Dagui's unhappy face of "You are making fun of Lao Tzu", Hui Dengxiang shook his head and said: "This is bad, it is difficult to attack the city, and it is easy to win Song Sima!" ”

"What's easy?" Faced with the credit that could be obtained, Hou Dagui showed rare patience, and continued to ask with irritability.

Hui Dengxiang said with a smile: "Hou Shuai, have you forgotten that there is still a good card in our army that has not been played." ”

This sentence wakes up the person in the dream.