In the patio of a small courtyard, beside a stone table, Kong Ying poured Chen Xian a cup of tea first.

"What does General Chen want to tell me?"

Chen Xian picked up the teacup and drank a few sips, but he was thinking about how to speak, he thought about it for a while and said: "General, now that the enemy army outside Chengdu is around, this city is in danger, and the last general wants to ask the general to come out and preside over the overall situation of the city defense!" ”

Kong Ying, who was drinking tea with a teacup, couldn't help but stop, looked up at Chen Xian, and then shook his head with a smile: "General Chen thinks too highly of me, I am just a powerless Sima, isn't it a joke that you let me come out to preside over the overall situation of the city defense?" I'm about to run for my life out of the city! ”

Chen Xian said with a straight face: "General Mo said that he laughed, most of the officials in the city have run away, if you want to leave, you can leave early, you don't have to wait until now!" ”

The expression on Kong Yingxian's face was indifferent, "General Chen, what do you want to do?" ”

"The last general has just said that I want to ask the general to come out and preside over the overall situation of the city defense! There are only 1,600 veterans under the last general, and the remaining 1,000 are newly recruited recruits, who are practicing in the past two days, but these people under the last general can't stop the siege of the dry army at all, and if you want to block the siege of the dry army, you must concentrate the strength of the whole city! But there must be someone who can make other generals obey orders, and the last general is willing to unconditionally and resolutely obey the general's orders, and he is also willing to persuade General Ye and General Guo to obey General Yu's orders, I don't know what the general wants? ”

Kong Yingxiang's eyes shrunk and stared at Chen Xian for a long time before he spoke: "I believe that you can obey my orders unconditionally, but it is unlikely that you will be able to convince Guo Li and Ye Tongzhang!" ”

Chen Xian hugged his fists and said: "General, if the last general can convince these two people, is the general willing to come out and preside over the overall situation?" ”

Kong Yingxian shook his head and said, "Only the three of you are willing to obey my dispatch is not enough, the other officials are afraid that they will not agree, they will not let a person like me ride on their heads!" ”

Chen Xian now understood that Kong Ying really didn't understand a little bit of scheming, "General, now all the soldiers and horses in the city are in the hands of the last general, General Guo and General Ye, the people have run out, and the attitude of those civil officials doesn't matter at all, even if they all go out and surrender the cadres at this moment, can the situation be worse?" ”

Kong Yingxian was puzzled: "Then why are they still here?" ”

Chen Xian couldn't help but smile bitterly, this Kong Ying really didn't understand anything after living a lot of age first, "General, don't you even see this?" The reason why they didn't leave was because if they left like this, the court would hold them accountable, and the dismissal of officials would be light, and in serious cases, they would be imprisoned and beheaded; On the other hand, they want to bring a little credit to the cadres when they surrender to the army, so that they will be valued by the top level of the cadres; if they surrender alone and do not vote, they will not be trusted by the Qianguo, let alone taken seriously, and will not be reused! ”

Kong Yingxian understood now, no wonder he was not the opponent of those officials, it turned out that these dogs were all holding back in their hearts!

"None of these dog officers are good! Okay, as long as you convince Ye Tongzhang and Guo Li, Kong will promise you to carry this burden! ”

Chen Xian hugged his fists: "The general ignores the past suspicions, understands the righteousness, and the general admires it!" Just wait for the good news of the last general! ”

······

On the tower of the east city gate, Guo Li came here with his own soldiers, and he took his generals to inspect the city gates as usual.

"Hey—"

A pro-soldier next to him said, "Why is the general sighing? ”

Guo Li looked worried and said, "Our brother's future is worrying! ”

"General, are you referring to the fact that Chen Xian and Ye Tongzhang both have plans to defend to the death?"

"Yes, if we defend to the end, our two thousand brothers will definitely fight hard in the end, knowing that they can't hold it, they still have to defend it, and they still have to fight if they know that they can't win, this Chen Xian and Ye Tongzhang really have a problem with their brains!"

The pro-soldier immediately said: "General, Chen Xian and Ye Tongzhang are stupid fools, don't fool around with them, this is a fatal thing, you have worked hard for many years to get into the position of the military master, and only saved these three thousand brothers, and you lost a thousand last time, you are so distressed that you haven't eaten or drunk for a few days, if you put all these two thousand people into it this time, haven't you done it for so many years?" ”

These words went to Guo Li's heart, and he nodded: "That's right!" ”

The soldier asked cautiously, "How did the general plan it?" ”

Guo Li turned his head and looked at this pro-soldier, this person has been with him for several years, he is very clever, he will come to things, his mouth is also tight, he is very serious and neat, he is relieved of this pro-soldier, so he said: "Originally, I planned to find an opportunity to join the Cheng Qianjun, we have 2,000 men and horses in our hands, why should the Qianguo side give us the official position of a military master and the establishment of an army?" But today Chen Xian and Ye Tongzhang have to stick to it, and it's hard for me to say this plan! If they say it, maybe they'll do it to us! But we want to join the Cheng Qianjun, but there is no way to catch up with them! ”

"The general's concern is exactly what he is, you can't just tell them casually!" The soldiers nodded, and said: "If the general really thinks about the brothers and wants to join the Qianguo, his subordinates are willing to take the risk of going out of the city for the general to meet the emperor of the Qianguo!" ”

This is not a trivial matter, and if you really want to send someone to contact the top level of the cadre army, the person who is sent out will be in great danger, and maybe they will be shot and killed by the rangers of the cadre army, or they may be dragged out and cut down if they don't say a word right after seeing the top level of the cadre army.

Guo Li thought about it for a while, this matter must be sent to the top of the continuous army, and as soon as possible, it will change, he immediately said to this pro-soldier: "Okay, Xiao Wu, I didn't misread you, among so many pro-soldiers, you are the only one who is clever and reliable!" In this way, you go and rest first, I will have someone prepare some food for you, and I will send someone to wake you up in the middle of the night, and after you have eaten something, I will send someone to put you down, and you will contact the cadres! ”

"No!"

In the middle of the night, after sleeping, the soldiers were full of food and drink again, and they were taken to the city tower, where Guo Li was already waiting.

"General!"

Guo Li waved his hand, and the other soldiers all retreated far away, Guo Li took out a letter and handed it to the soldiers and said: "You take this letter, once you see the Qianjun rangers, immediately identify yourself, don't hesitate to go, just say that you are on my orders to see the general of the Qianjun, you have the letter I wrote to the Emperor of the Qianguo, they will naturally not embarrass you after hearing it, understand?" ”

"The villain knows!"

"Okay, be careful, I'll wait for you to come back!"

"General rest assured, the villain will definitely live up to his mission!"

Guo Li waved his hand, several pro-soldiers came over to operate the hanging basket, and the pro-soldiers with the mission walked into the gondola and were slowly put under the city by several other soldiers.

The soldiers came out of the hanging basket after landing, looked up at the city, waved their hands, and plunged into the night.

······

Early in the morning, the camp of the dry army.

Zhao Junsheng finished his morning exercise, and the morning exercises of the soldiers were also last night, and they took the rice bowls to the canteen to get food one by one.

"Your Majesty, General Su Ji asks to see you!" A royal guard came over and reported to Zhao Junsheng, who had changed into clean clothes and walked out of the tent.

Zhao Junsheng turned his head to look, and sure enough, he saw Su Ji standing not far away, so he beckoned.

Su Ji immediately stepped forward quickly, clasped his fists and bowed down on one knee: "Minister Su Ji came to report on the order, see Your Majesty!" ”

"Flat!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Zhao Junsheng asked, "Arrived last night?" ”

"Yes, I arrived at midnight last night, and because it was too late, I was worried about disturbing His Majesty's rest, so I once asked for an audience!"

Zhao Junsheng nodded, and said, "I came here early this morning, have you eaten?" ”

"Not yet!"

Zhao Junsheng shook his head: "You people, come here every time you come here without eating, and you have to mix a meal here every time, and you are not ashamed!" Today I will let you eat for nothing, and I will come back after eating before the audience in the future, and I will not provide you with food again! ”

Su Ji's face was embarrassed, "Yes, yes, the minister remembered!" ”

Zhao Junsheng instructed the imperial guards: "Go and prepare an extra meal!" ”

"No!"

Zhao Junsheng walked towards the middle of the camp and motioned to Su Ji to follow.

Zhao Junsheng said as he walked with his hands behind his back: "I originally planned to surround Chengdu City for encirclement and reinforcement, but now it seems that in addition to the two people who still have some loyalty to Tan and Li Dan and lead the troops to send them to death, the other Song army generals and schools in Shu are all shrewd like ghosts, and they are huddled in the garrison city one by one and do not come out, presumably they have no loyalty to the Southern Dynasty, and only care about the little military power in their hands!" ”

"So now I have decided to change my strategy, since the cities in Shu are closed to defend themselves, regardless of whether others live or die, let's first fight the cities that are easy to attack and difficult to defend, and then the cities that are easy to defend and difficult to attack!"

"I transferred you here so that you can preside over the capture of the cities in Shudi, and now at this time, our army has 10,000 cavalry, 8,000 infantry, and 6,000 auxiliary troops! You can't use cavalry to attack the city, and the other infantry will be dispatched by you, and Nie Feihu, the deputy general of Liangzhou, will also be under your command! In the next period of time, a lot of infantry will be transferred over, all under your command, I want you to capture all the cities in Sichuan and Shu in the shortest possible time, and finally we will fight Chengdu again! ”

Su Ji clenched his fists and agreed: "The minister obeys the order!" ”

Zhao Junsheng pondered and asked, "How long will it take you?" ”

Su Ji didn't reply on the spot, but said: "The minister needs to plan well, and the minister will see you tomorrow at this time!" ”

"Good!"

The two had breakfast together.

As soon as Su Ji left, Yang Lie came to see him.

"Your Majesty, last night the rangers found a Song soldier outside the East City Gate, who claimed to be the personal soldier of Guo Li, the commander of the Chengdu Army, and was ordered by Guo Li to come to see His Majesty and discuss the matter of surrendering! Late last night, when the minister saw that His Majesty had rested, he did not disturb His Majesty! ”

Zhao Junsheng said: "Oh, what did Guo Li's personal soldier say? How does Guo Li plan to surrender? The defenders of the city are not only his men, right? ”