Chen Yongfu returned to the barracks and informed the generals of the solution agreed with Li Yan, although his subordinates were a little reluctant, but if they could not fight with Li Yan, they could be regarded as earning.

To say that Li Yan is still outside the city, they still have the idea of resisting. However, Li Yan was too cunning, and suddenly made an attack and grabbed the southern city wall, so that they had no advantage at all. There are not as many troops as others, artillery is not as far as others, and soldiers are not as well trained as others, so they have no way at all. So they only whispered their disappointment, and had no intention of resisting.

Chen Yongfu was completely dead this time, thinking about leaving here first, and then finding a way to take back the loyalty of these subordinates. He instructed Chen De: "Go and prepare, bring food, money, and horses, and apologize to Li Yan before dark." ”

"Father," Chen De blushed and asked, "Can you give them more goods, I don't have to apologize, right?" ”

Chen Yongfu waved his hand first, asked his subordinates to go back and start preparing for the pull, and sent scouts to reconnoiter the enemy situation in the direction of Zhengzhou first.

After everyone left, he said helplessly: "Li Yan just wants you to apologize." If he hadn't taken your article, I wouldn't have agreed to leave Kaifeng so easily. ”

"Father, child, child is just angry for a while, it~" Chen De explained anxiously.

Chen Yongfu sighed and said: "Forget it, since you have already broken into this disaster, you should learn a lesson." In the future, if you want to grow up, you must train the soldiers well, even if you can't train all of them to be elite soldiers like Li Yan, then you have to make the soldiers have some combat power. There are only a few hundred Ding, and there is no chance of winning against an opponent like Li Yan. ”

"But the food is insufficient." Chen De reminded. They used five times or even ten times the salary to feed their families, and ordinary soldiers could only be the part of the strong force. Now that they have stepped up their artillery training, and they have to leave a place like Kaifeng where there is oil and water, their food and wages are even more insufficient.

Chen Yongfu gritted his teeth and said, "Then find another way!" What Li Yan can do, we can do too! ”

In the evening, Chen De took his things to Li Yan's barracks outside the city.

At this time, Li Yan gathered all the soldiers who were not on duty and lined up neatly in the barracks. Four coffins were placed in front, and more than two dozen wounded were also carried out.

Chen De looked at the three incense sticks that were handed over, although he was very breathless, he still inserted the incense sticks into the incense burner in front of the coffin, and then bowed down three times, which was regarded as a worship to the dead.

Later, he apologized to the wounded: "Brothers, I'm sorry. I have brought grain, silver and horses today to make amends for your sins, and I ask you to forgive us for our mistakes. ”

The wounded were all staring at Chen De angrily, they were not wounded by the enemy, but by friendly soldiers, which made them still angry. The other soldiers raised their heads one by one, and stood more and more upright. A guerrilla general personally came to apologize to his brother Paoze, who felt that it was too uplifting and too face-saving.

Li Yan saw that Chen De was doing a good job, so he didn't continue to embarrass him. So he hugged his fists and said: "Okay, since General Chen came to apologize in person, then this matter is over." We will still be friendly forces in the future, and we must cooperate sincerely. ”

Chen De nodded and said, "What General Li said is true. Since this is the case, the contemptible people will not bother. ”

"General Chen, please." Li Yan sent him off with a smile. If it weren't for the fact that his strength was not enough now, and he didn't have any name, he wouldn't have let Chen Yongfu leave Kaifeng so easily. But now it's not bad, and the most important thing is to steadily expand the territory and army.

After Li Yan waited for Chen De to leave, he immediately announced that he would give each of the four dead soldiers one tael of silver and three stones of grain. The wounded were fifty taels of silver and a stone of grain each.

"Xie Dashuai, after I recover from my injury, I will work hard to kill the enemy to repay the kindness of Dashuai." The wounded were all choked up.

And the soldiers in the queue also shouted loudly: "Swear allegiance to the commander!" Swear allegiance to the Commander! ”

The shout was so deafening that even the king of Zhou, who was in the inner city, heard it. At this time, he put down the merit invitation chapter in his hand, as well as the marriage invitation to Wu Niang, and smiled with satisfaction. With such a son-in-law to guard Kaifeng City, he can be regarded as worry-free.

"Expedite the movement to Beijing." King Zhou commanded happily. Marry first and then ask for marriage, although this is the method of the distant branch clan, but he still does it. After all, it is worth it to use a concubine to catch a golden beetle son-in-law like Li Yan, and it is worth violating the rules.

At this time, the most helpless one is Hou Xun. The emperor released him from the prison and made him governor of the military affairs of Baoding, Shandong, and Hebei, but he also added a jurisdiction over Zuo Liangyu. Zuo Liangyu's troops are now in Henan and Huguang, isn't it obvious that they are taking advantage of the relationship between him and Zuo Liangyu.

Although he rescued and carried Zuo Liangyu in his early years, can he definitely command Zuo Liangyu now? He had no confidence in that. And when he went home to his father's funeral last year, his son had already told him that he had asked Zuo Liangyu to send troops to return to Germany to suppress thieves, but as soon as Zuo Liangyu's soldiers arrived in Qi County, they retreated inexplicably.

He didn't think it was anything at the time, but when he looks at it now, it doesn't feel good. Zuo Liangyu gave his son face, and he could send troops over to help with a letter, but this was also a favor. So although he wrote a letter to Zuo Liangyu, asking Zuo Liangyu to lead his troops north to converge, he didn't have much hope.

In addition, the Baoding soldiers were basically taken away by Yang Wenyue, and the Hebei soldiers drew a lot of soldiers to the border towns to make up for the holes, leaving Shandong Liu Zeqing and some soldiers. So he wrote to the emperor and sprinkled a large text, which meant that there was no need to save Henan, and the troops of the surrounding provinces were arranged on the main roads, and the thieves were blocked in Henan, and they were starved to death.

In fact, there is nothing new, but it is still a copy of Yang Sichang's four positive six corners and ten sides of the net. However, Yang Sichang can still come up with a force to focus on suppressing thieves, but Hou Sui can't even take out such a force now, so he can only hope that the thieves will toss Henan into scorched earth, so that he can starve himself to death.

Although the imperial court already knew that Kaifeng was preserved at this time, the emperor still did not agree with Hou Sui's suggestion, and still asked Hou Sui to rectify the soldiers and horses and go to Henan to exterminate the thieves. Before, I wanted to rescue Kaifeng, and I couldn't let King Zhou be killed by the thieves, but now the goal has become to exterminate the thieves in one fell swoop.

Although the more than 100,000 officers and soldiers who went to rescue Kaifeng in the early stage were almost wiped out, Kaifeng was still not breached, which shows that the defenders of Kaifeng have strong combat effectiveness. If you add Hebei, Shandong, Shaanxi, and Zuo Liangyu's troops, it is not impossible to exterminate Li Zicheng.

As long as the thieves are exterminated, the people can live with peace of mind, the imperial court can collect money, grain and taxes, and provide more powerful guarantees outside the customs. So, as long as the thieves can be exterminated, everything will be fine. Therefore, Chongzhen's most urgent wish now is to quickly solve the problem of internal thieves.

Hou Sui had no choice but to go to Baoding first, and the others could only find a way later.

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