Liu Kongzhao, the commander of the Nanjing garrison and the sincere uncle, as the general point of the counterinsurgency operation, was nervous and excited after hearing the news that Xu Hongru was about to ascend to the throne as emperor.

After the official army completely besieged Wenzhou City, Liu Kongzhao also presided over several siege operations, but they were unsuccessful, so he could only order the whole army to temporarily abandon the operation and rest in place. But this rest and recuperation actually gave the White Lotus Sect Leader the leisure to do such a rebellious thing as ascending to the pole and becoming the emperor, for this, Liu Kongzhao must have an unshirkable responsibility.

This is the reason why Lord Liu is nervous.

And what made him excited was that since Xu Hongru of the White Lotus Sect had reached the point of facing the south and turning his back to the north and falsely claiming the imperial system, it meant that this Xu sect leader had become the biggest rebellion in the history of the Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years. You must know that in the "Rebellion of King Ning" during the Zhengde period, Zhu Chenhao swept the southwest with the respect of the emperor, but he never dared to be the emperor; Even Zhu Di, the king of Yan at the time of the "Battle of Jingyan", did not dare to officially ascend to the pole until he took Nanjing and confirmed that Zhu Yunwen was dead.

Therefore, if Xu Hongru becomes the emperor, it will become a sweet spot in Liu Kongzhao's eyes. As long as this rebellion can be extinguished, then Liu Kongzhao himself will be the first to exterminate the biggest rebel in history, and then find a few literati to render it brilliantly, which will definitely make Emperor Chongzhen's heart flutter, and he will be able to give him a first-class promotion, from a sincere uncle to a sincere marquis or even a sincere prince......

Thinking of this, Liu Kongzhao suddenly made up his mind, and immediately summoned Han Zanzhou, the eunuch of the Nanjing garrison, Zhang Yandeng, the governor of Zhejiang, and Zou Weilian, the governor of Fujian, to discuss the siege of the city in the big tent of the Chinese army. Of course, Ji Qingwen was also invited.

Now the White Lotus Sect has become a desperate caged bird, as long as the officials and troops outside the city fight seriously, sooner or later they will be able to defeat the lonely city of Wenzhou. And the only thing Ji Qingwen is worried about now is the safety of Zhou Xiuying, who is trapped in the city, and this reason cannot be said in public, so Ji Qingwen did not object to Lord Liu Kongzhao's siege plan.

However, the absence of opposition does not imply unconditional support.

Regarding Liu Kongzhao's strategy of using Ji Qingwen's Ming Wu army as the vanguard to carry out siege operations, Ji Qingwen refused on the spot, and his reason was also very good - since the official use of troops in the imperial court, it has always been the team under Ji Qingwen that is resisting the attack of the White Lotus Sect head-on, so the losses are very huge and they have not yet recovered, so it is not suitable to attack the fortified forces as the vanguard force.

Liu Kongzhao has long been accustomed to Ji Qingwen going against him, so it is not surprising to hear Ji Qingwen refuse so simply, and Liu Kongzhao has seized the time to build a lot of siege equipment in the past few days, and he is confident that he can still capture Wenzhou City with his own strength.

Therefore, without further ado, on the second day of the meeting, Liu Kongzhao waved his army, adopted the strategy of "encircling three and missing one" in the art of war, and deployed the troops of Nanzhili, Fujian, and Zhejiang from the direction of the western, southern, and northern three brothers, and began to attack the city on a large scale with his order.

Although Xu Hongru, the leader of the White Lotus Sect in Wenzhou City, has already ignored personnel, Zhou Xiuying and Xu Daoqing are quite serious and responsible.

When they saw that the official army was attacking, they hurriedly organized all the White Lotus disciples in the city to climb the city wall to carry out defensive operations. At this time, although the food in Wenzhou City was quite tight, it was still possible to fill the stomach with two meals a day these days, so the White Lotus Sect still had some combat effectiveness, and the battle was also very heroic.

In particular, Xu Daoqing, in accordance with his previous plans and deployments, asked the disciples of the White Lotus Sect who were engaged in the construction industry in the past to demolish several houses in Wenzhou City, and threw the dismantled heads, tiles, wood, etc. as weapons and threw them into the city. The poor officers and soldiers who were ordered to attack rushed to the bottom of the city, and before they could set up the ladder, a terrible rain of stones fell on their heads, smashing them on the head and breaking the blood.

On the other side, Zhou Xiuying poured some flammable liquids such as tung oil and dyes collected in Wenzhou City from the city to the city, and lit a few fires, burning the siege equipment that the officials and soldiers had worked hard to build and transport.

In this way, under the command of Liu Kongzhao, the officers and soldiers operated as fiercely as tigers, but in the end, they only left behind about 2,000 corpses, and then retreated.

The White Lotus Sect's losses in this battle to defend the city were not small. It doesn't matter if the disciples under his command killed more than 1,000 people in battle, but they have consumed a lot of food and materials because of this, if the official army comes to such a few large-scale offensives, the White Lotus Sect really doesn't have much confidence that it will be able to hold on.

In this regard, Zhou Xiuying, who had just come down from the fire line at the head of the city, ran to the so-called "palace" of the sect leader Xu Hongru as soon as possible, and told the war situation to the sect leader Xu who was making the "emperor dream" one by one.

After speaking, Zhou Xiuying also emphasized one more sentence: "Daddy, it seems that it is not a way to consume it like this." How to get out, and my father has to make up his mind early......"

Xu Hongru was still trapped in the "Emperor's Dream", and when he heard Zhou Xiuying talk about the war endlessly, he suddenly felt a headache and annoyance, and said with a calm face: "Why do you have to escape?" We are in this Wenzhou city, even if we open the city gate for the officials and soldiers to fight, with the divine power of the deity, we will definitely not be able to win? ”

When Zhou Xiuying heard this, she was stunned - the current situation, either find a way to break through, or hold the city as much as possible to wait for changes, how can she open the city gate to lure the wolf into the house?

"Could it be true that as Xu Daoqing said, the sect leader's father has become a joke?" Zhou Xiuying thought so in her heart, but she didn't say it after all.

But she was so stunned, Xu Hongru was unhappy again, and said, "What are you still doing in a daze?" Are you ready to go to the throne? In the future, don't bother me with such trivial things! Also, don't call me the sect leader in the future, call me the emperor! ”

Zhou Xiuying sighed, did not say the word "emperor", sighed, and retreated.

Xu Daoqing waited outside the door as usual, and saw Zhou Xiuying walking out worriedly, and without thinking about it, he expected that her conversation with Xu Hongru did not lead to any good results, so he hurriedly went up and asked: "Holy Maiden, what did the sect leader say?" ”

Zhou Xiuying didn't answer Xu Daoqing, so she frowned and went back to the house.

From this moment on, Zhou Xiuying has realized that this Wenzhou city is categorically unable to hold it, and it may not be able to escape, it seems that the only way to stay here and fight with the official army for the last time, and then martyrdom can be taken.

So Zhou Xiuying simply handed over the absurd matter of preparing for the Dengda Ceremony to a few disciples in the White Lotus Sect who were originally singing and doing chores in the troupe. He summoned the only hundreds of "women's army" under his command to teach them the martial arts they had learned, so that they could learn as much as they could, and when the decisive battle came, they could kill a few more court eagle dogs as backs......

Outside the city, the officers and soldiers are here.

The attack organized by Liu Kongzhao was inevitable, but it was still frustrated under the not tall walls of Wenzhou City, which made Liu Bowen's descendants a little discouraged. After all, the White Lotus Sect in the city had already suffered heavy losses and low morale after a month's attrition, and the officers and troops who came prepared were still defeated under their hands, which was really a bit unreasonable.

In fact, the current White Lotus Sect is like a gambler with a bad card on the gambling table, as long as he adds a little pressure and grits his teeth to keep up with the chips again, he can make his true form be exposed, and he will lose his fortune.

But Liu Kongzhao is also not a clever gambler, he can't see the weakness and helplessness of the opponent, but is frightened by the opponent's bluff, if he didn't still hold the last trump card in his hand, Lord Liu Kongzhao might have a showdown.

And this trump card is the Ming Wu Army under Ji Qingwen, and the Sichuan White Pole Soldiers under the command of Ji Qingwen.

But the price of using this trump card is not light, and it is necessary to pay the dignity and face that Liu Kongzhao has been proud of for decades.

However, if he didn't play this hole card now, he would lose badly—at least that's what Liu Kongzhao himself thought—so he had no choice but to run to Ji Qingwen's barracks and beg him to join in the siege.