When Xiang Kangli decided to take advantage of the victory to capture Yuxian and the second city, the total strength of the young marshal's army finally broke through the 3,000 mark. More than 1,700 people in the army were former soldiers of the young marshal's army who participated in the whole battle of the lower minister, another more than 800 were prisoners of the Qin army who were semi-forcibly incorporated by the young marshal's army, and nearly 500 were newly recruited soldiers after the battle of the lower minister. ——Seeing the great victory of the young marshal's army and the alliance of the Qin army in Yu County, under the great increase in confidence in the young marshal's army, not only many of the people who did not dare to join the young marshal's army changed their course and took the initiative to join the army, but also many people from neighboring counties who could not stand the tyranny of Qin II also rushed to join the army, and Xiang Kang, who was in urgent need of strengthening his strength, would rather than lack and take all the orders, so the speed of army expansion was very fast.

Of course, although the speed of army expansion is fast, the young marshal army is still a group of typical rabble, which even Xiang Kang himself does not dare to deny, but there is no way, there is not enough time for training, there is not enough weapons and equipment, and there is no way to turn decay into magic, and turn the rabble into elite and strong soldiers all of a sudden. Xiang Kang had no choice but to hold the plan to train the team in actual combat, so that the army could eliminate the weak and retain the strong through actual combat, and gradually cultivate elite and strong soldiers.

However, there are also corresponding benefits to recruiting and co-opting the rabble, at least Xiang Kang will not be as overstretched as before in the deployment of troops, even if he decides to take 2,000 troops to attack Yuxian and take considerations, Xiang Kang still has 1,000 troops to stay and hand them over to Xiang Guan, Xiang Xian and Xiang Dian, the three children of the Xiang family, to lead the army to defend the city and ensure the safety of the only old nest under the Xiangcheng. At the same time, for the sake of prudence, Xiang Kang decided to bring his predecessor Zhou Zeng, the county commander, with him to go on the expedition, leaving Sun Gong, who was not as influential and popular as Zhou Zeng, to help Xiang Guan and others govern the government and soothe the people, and preside over the autumn harvest of the next minister.

In order not to give the enemy too much time to prepare for the battle, after making preparations for the expedition in a hurry, under the condition that the ordnance and baggage were very insufficient, the 2,000 young marshals set off with Xiang Kang with only ten days of grain and grass, and marched west to attack the county of Tak and Yu. When choosing the first siege target, Xiang Kang, after repeated consideration, categorically rejected Zhou Zeng's suggestion to attack the county first, first pointed the finger at the county, and decided to fight the county first, and then take the county.

In this regard, Zhou Zeng, who was very familiar with the situation of the Qin army, was of course quite puzzled, even if Xiang Kang made up his mind, he couldn't help but ask: "Young marshal, do you want to think about it again?" Gu Bi, the county commander of Yu County, has died in the next minister, the county government is all represented by the county Cheng, and the authority is not enough to convince the public, it will definitely be difficult to gather a large number of troops to compete with us in a short period of time, relatively speaking, it is definitely easier to fight than to worry, and the situation of worry is completely opposite to Yu County, why do you choose to give up the easy and take the difficult, and fight first? ”

"Two reasons." Xiang Kang replied very directly: "The first is that most of the prisoners of war we have recruited are worried soldiers, and they are forced to join us, and they must be worried that their families will be implicated. The second is the integrity of the county temple, if we give the county temple too much time to recruit troops and prepare for war, and then turn around and worry, it will only be several times more difficult than going to fight now. ”

"But it's harder to fight than Yu County?" Zhou Zeng reminded: "Our baggage equipment is insufficient, the grain and grass are only enough for ten days, and the soldiers have no formal experience in attacking the city, what if we can't fight it?" ”

Xiang Kang frowned, nodded, and admitted that it was indeed more difficult to fight than Su County, and then said: "The same, for us, as long as the enemy is closed and defended, Gu County and Xuan are actually the same difficult to fight. However, relatively speaking, because we have a large number of people in our hands, and we are inextricably linked with the military and civilian officials in the city, and there are many more opportunities to win by surprise, so it may be easier for us to deal with the worries first than in the county. ”

Seeing that Xiang Kang had made up his mind, and knew that he was far inferior to Xiang Kang, who was born to eat this bowl of rice in military affairs, Zhou Zeng no longer insisted on opposing it, but told Xiang Kang that when he was in the school, he was interested in studying siege weapons, so that Xiang Kang could find himself at any time when he needed it.

A day after departure, the young marshal army, which has no opponent in the southeast of Surabaya County, successfully marched west to the territory of the young marshal, and then, as Xiang Kang expected, just entered the country, and sure enough, there were many people who were worried about helping the old and the young, and came to the young marshal army to find relatives.

At the beginning, Xiang Kang and many young marshal generals were still a little worried that the Qin prisoners of war who were worried about would take the opportunity to flee, which would affect the morale of the army, but what made Xiang Kang and the young marshal generals overjoyed was that because of Qin II's perverse behavior, as well as the harsh administration of the county temple, the people were unbearable, and not only did not flee from the camp to meet with their families, but on the contrary, there were many worried people who took the initiative to ask to join the young marshal army, Xiang Kang was overjoyed to accept them all, and the young marshal army also added more than 100 people to the ranks. It was a good start for this attack.

The next day, the young marshal's army continued to march eastward under the leadership of Xiang Kang, and successfully arrived at the eastern suburbs of the same day in the afternoon. Xiang Kang was not in a hurry, but while directing the army to set up camp in a suitable place, he sent people to cut timber everywhere and handed it over to the engineer team in charge of Zhou Zeng to make siege equipment, and at the same time sent people to inquire about the news and understand the specific situation in the city.

When the camp was set up, at dinner, Xiang Kang invited Chao Zhi and several officials who followed Chao Zhi's surrender to the Chinese military tent, and while eating with them, he consulted them on the strategy of breaking the city. As a result, Chao Zhi first said: "Young marshal, the last general thinks that it is best to find a way to win by surprise, and don't expect too much to attack head-on to succeed directly." Because the city wall is too strong, over the years, in order to prevent the flooding, several county commanders have attached great importance to strengthening the city wall every time they levy and issue levies, and the city wall has been built to be three zhang high, one and a half zhang wide, even if it is soaked in floods for a month or two, it will not collapse, and it is impossible to think about counting trebuchets to smash the city wall. ”

"In addition, in order to facilitate the discharge of floodwater, the moat of the city is also dug deep and wide, and it is still difficult to fill with living water, even if we build a siege ladder or a building car, we can't advance to the lower phase of the city to launch a siege. Therefore, the last general believed that with the current situation of our army, there was no certainty of victory in a frontal attack, and the only way to win was to find a way to win by surprise and use other methods to take the city. ”

Listening to Chao Zhi's introduction, Xiang Kang, who had already gone to the scene to explore, was not in a hurry to speak, or after Chao Zhi's introduction, Xiang Kang asked: "General Chao, then in your opinion, how should we win by surprise?" ”

"The last general thinks that he might as well make a fuss about the fact that Wang Zhao is unpopular with the people." Chao Zhi suggested, and said: "It's not that the last general hates Wang Zhao for deliberately belittling him, this puppet is famous for not being a thing, he is greedy for money and lustful, and he is short-tempered, cruel and harsh, and there is no one who does not hate him when he cares about the military and civilian officials in the city." The last general estimated that the military and civilian officials who were worried might be afraid of his power and had to participate in the defense of the city, but there must be many people who were very willing to see the young marshal break through the worries and behead that Wang Zhao to vent his anger. ”

"Wang Zhao is not a thing, so how did he sit firmly in the position of the county commander?" Xiang Kang asked thoughtfully.

"Of course, it's a sycophant, to please the above." Chao Zhi sneered and said: "He is a distant relative of our county imperial history of Surabaya County, and often sends things and beautiful women to the county imperial history, and the county imperial history is in charge of the assessment and supervision of all officials in the entire Surabaya County, that is, Zhao Junshou easily does not dare to offend him, and the county imperial history supports him and helps him settle the affairs of the officialdom, so he sits firmly in his position." Otherwise, with his virtue, he would have been exempted a few times. ”

Chao Zhi took the lead, and several officials who surrendered with Chao Zhi also echoed one after another, saying that Wang Zhao, the county commander, was not a good thing, and he was not good at anything except flattering his boss. Xiang Kang nodded when he heard this, and then asked, "Then Wang Zhao is in the city, what kind of henchmen do you have?" ”

"What henchmen can he have, except for the family he brought from his hometown, and the Hucao Lufa who only knows how to pat his ass all day long, even the scribes in the county temple are unwilling to have a heart-to-heart relationship with him." Chao Zhi said contemptuously: "The county captain and the county right lieutenant are also at odds with him, and they don't have a lot of greetings behind his back. There are also several big households in the county, and because they are often blackmailed by him, they all want him to get out of the way as soon as possible. ”

Hearing this, Xiang Kang already had a little idea, first asked Xiang to bring some cloth and pen and ink, and then instructed Chao Zhi and the others: "General Chao, and you, you are familiar with the people in the city, please write some letters, count Wang Zhao's various crimes, persuade the military and civilian officials in the city to help me kill Wang Zhao, and take Wang Zhao's head to exchange for a heavy reward." In addition, General Chao, you work harder, and then use your personal reputation to write a letter to each of the county officials and the right lieutenant, urging them to abandon the darkness and turn to the light, kill Wang Zhao and surrender to me, in exchange for a heavy reward and glory and wealth, and finally sign your name. ”

Chao Zhi and the others agreed, and then Chao Zhi hesitated and said: "Young marshal, I can write a letter, but whether I can persuade the county and the right lieutenant to surrender, the last general is not sure." ”

"It's okay, just write." Xiang Kang smiled and said, "I don't expect these letters to receive the surrender effect, I just need to let these letters be seen by Wang Zhao." ”

Although he didn't understand Xiang Kang's intentions very well, in order to show loyalty to the new master, Chao Zhi and others still did not hesitate to write a book, and soon wrote more than a dozen letters persuading the soldiers and civilians to kill Wang Zhao in exchange for a heavy reward, and then Chao Zhi used his own personal reputation to write a letter to the county Cheng and the right lieutenant who were worried, urging them to abandon the darkness and turn to the light, kill the unpopular Wang Zhao and surrender to the young marshal's army. After the letter was written, Xiang Kang immediately handed it over to Xiang Yang, and asked Xiang Yang to arrange ten crossbowmen to lurk under the city at night, and tie these letters to arrows and shoot them into the city.

The matter was not over, after dinner, Xiang Kang sent another message to Peng Zhenglun, the chief official who had also surrendered to him, and ordered him to imitate the handwriting of the county and the right lieutenant, and to write two letters to himself in their honor, and then handed them over to Xiang Yang and taught him in person, so that Xiang Yang could act according to the plan......

…………

After all, it is a county town, and no matter how closely guarded it is, it is impossible to cover everything, so Xiang Kang's personal soldiers did not even have a chance to touch the city and release arrows, so Xiang Kang's personal soldiers completed the task very easily, and shot more than a dozen letters into the city one by one that night. Then, as Xiang Kang expected, although a few arrow books fell into remote places in the city and disappeared, and a few letters were hidden or destroyed, there were still a few letters that were found by the soldiers of the Qin army and handed in, and were forwarded to Wang Zhao, the commander of the county, at dawn, and it also included a handwritten letter written by Chao Zhi to Bao Wen, the right lieutenant of the county.

It is conceivable that Wang Zhao was angry after seeing these letters, and in his anger, Wang Zhao not only ordered the whole city to find the remaining arrow books and confiscate them, but also patted the case and yelled and shouted, loudly greeting the eighteenth generation of the ancestors of Chao Zhi's traitors, and vowed to clean up Chao Zhi's water-based Yang Hua's wife in bed. However, after the rage, Wang Zhao fell into a huge fear, for fear that the people below would really be instigated by the young marshal army and Chao Zhi, and suddenly kill himself, and take his head to Xiang Kang to reward him - after all, Wang Zhao is still a little self-aware, knows what kind of reputation he has among the people, and knows how unpopular he is.

The more scared he is, the more he sees the ghost, just when Wang Zhao was worried and worried, Lu Fa, who had recently been promoted by Wang Zhao to replace Chao Zhi as the left lieutenant of the county, suddenly came to ask for a meeting, after Wang Zhao ordered the summons, Lu Fa trotted all the way up to the county temple hall, and shouted in panic: "County Zun, woe, woe, woe, we found a letter outside the city, we found a letter outside the city!" ”

"What misfortune?" Wang Zhao asked angrily, and asked suspiciously, "A letter was found outside the city?" Didn't all the thieves' letters come into the city? How could you find an epistle outside the city? ”

"The county honor, it's not a letter from a thief, it's a letter from the people in the city that we shot out." Lu Fan replied with a sad face, and said: "The letter was also shot out by an arrow and stuck in the mud ground outside the east gate, but fortunately, the lecturer under the subordinate saw it in advance and took it back, otherwise this letter would have been picked up by the scouts of the thieves." ”

"Who is so bold as to use the Book of Arrows to communicate with the thieves outside?" Wang Zhao was furious and shouted, "Who is the person who wrote the letter? ”

"The subordinates dare not speak." Lu Fa sold Guanzi with a timid face, and carefully presented a special crossbow arrow for the Qin army, as well as a silk arrow book, and said: "County Zun, please see for yourself, you are very familiar with this person." ”

A snatch of the arrow book handed over by his relatives, when he unfolded it and took a closer look, Wang Zhao suddenly felt that the handwriting seemed to be somewhat familiar, and then looked at the letter and signed it, Wang Zhao suddenly had some green tendons blooming on his forehead, it turned out that this letter was actually written by the county Cheng Duanzi Xing! And when he looked at the content of the letter carefully, Wang Zhao's face was blank at first, and then he shouted a few times: "Come on, call the official immediately!" ”