The city of Ruyang under the heat is quiet, there seems to be a fire on the ground, the heat sweeps everything away, there is no sound, no dog barking, this is as if it is an empty city, although the summer days of previous years are hotter than this, but there are always beggars and merchants walking the streets and alleys on the street, but this year there is nothing, death-like silence, this is because under the heat there is another more frightening atmosphere, hunger and death, yes, from the beginning of spring to now, it has not rained for four months, More than a dozen rivers around the river were cut off, countless wheat fields withered and the harvest was lost, the summer harvest had passed, and the harvest was sharply reduced by 80 percent compared with last year, but Cui Qinggong's demand for military rations increased by 30 percent compared with last year.

What is more terrible than hunger is the military rebellion, when the military food is unsustainable, there are only two ways to deal with it, one is to reduce the number of soldiers; The second is that the soldiers eat themselves, unfortunately, Cui Qinggong adopted the latter strategy, only to supply half of the military rations of each army, and the other half is solved by the ministry itself, which is undoubtedly to let go of the mouth of the military rebellion, starting from May, in the land of Huaibei rebels unscrupulously committed atrocities, rape, looting, and even cannibalism, countless wandering soldiers wandered between the city and the countryside in groups, carrying out their crimes under the cover of twilight, and even the local officials did not let go, by the middle of June, the officials above the county order had reached 13 households. Countless impeachments of Cui Qinggong flew into the imperial court like snowflakes. The Empress Dowager Cui Xiaofu immediately sent the imperial history to ask. But the answer was only four cold words: the hungry people!

At the same time, Wei Deqing, who was left behind, also encountered the same predicament as Cui Qinggong, and the grain production was reduced even more than that of Huaibei, but Wei Deqing adopted a relatively moderate approach, he cut 20,000 old and weak soldiers, and sent people to pretend to be mountain bandits to loot the official warehouse, and at the same time borrowed grain from large households for the people under his rule. He tried his best to restrain the soldiers not to disturb the people, and this series of actions provoked countless Huaibei residents to flee northward, and the contradictions between Cui and Wei became increasingly acute, and finally, at the end of May, when dealing with a group of hungry people who crossed the border, Wei Deqing's army and Cui Qinggong's army had a bloody conflict, and new and old hatreds accumulated, and a war between the two armies was about to break out.

Several fast horses rushed into Ruyang City like a whirlwind, and the streets were quiet. The cavalry did not stop them, and they galloped all the way to Cui Qinggong's mansion, and their excitement was overflowing. Without waiting to get off the horse, he said loudly to the guard: "Quickly report to the prince, General Gu defeated the Wei thief in Songcheng County, killed 20,000 enemies, and specially reported the good news to the prince." This was a rare piece of good news in the past month or so, and the guards did not dare to slack off, so they took the letter and rushed into the palace.

Cui Qinggong has been in a frenzied mood for several months, and he is prone to thunder at every turn, killing and punishing his subordinates and his own soldiers. What made him anxious was not only the impact of the drought, he never cared about the life and death of the small people in Shengdou, what really made him sleepy was the control of the army, because his subordinates began to fend for themselves, the most direct consequence was that the control of the army was strengthened, in other words, he Cui Qinggong began to be in danger of being overlooked. This trend can be seen in this battle with Wei Deqing. The generals under him are in their own positions, and they all take it as their responsibility to loot people's wealth. For the war, they passed the buck and did not cooperate with each other, so that Wei Deqing won three battles and three victories in just ten days, and annihilated his nearly 50,000 troops in various ways.

"Lord Wang, there is good news!" The soldiers knew his temper, so they reported loudly from afar, waking Cui Qinggong from his contemplation in front of the map.

Good news? Cui Qinggong frowned, a few days ago Ma Dawei said that there was good news, annihilated 10,000 enemies, and offered the head, which made him ecstatic, but afterwards he found a large number of women and children among the people, only to know that Dawei killed the homeless people to compensate for the merit, and deceived him of 50,000 stone reward food, he had to make a big fuss, but he didn't dare to really deal with him.

It's only been a few days later, and someone sent good news, Cui Qinggong didn't dare to believe it easily, but said coldly: "What is the good news?" ”

The soldiers entered the house, held the letter high above their heads, knelt down and said: "General Gu broke the Wei thieves in Songcheng County and killed more than 20,000 enemies!" ”

"More than 20,000 people!" Cui Qinggong snorted heavily, Wei Deqing only has a total of 40,000 troops, he can actually kill 20,000, needless to say, he is following Ma Dawei's example, using the displaced people to fill the number, at this time, Cui Qinggong suddenly found a serious problem, Ma Dawei annihilated 10,000 enemies, deceived 50,000 stone grain, and finally endured it, but now Gu Cheng followed suit and killed 20,000 enemies, so do you want to give him 100,000 stone food? If it is given, in a few days, someone will come to report that 30,000 or 40,000 enemies have been killed, so what should I do?

If he didn't give it, would the 50,000 troops under Gu Cheng belong to him again?

A happy word was red on the letter newspaper and dangled in front of him, but Cui Qinggong felt that it was extremely dazzling, he snatched the letter newspaper and kicked the soldiers out, "Get out of here!" Get lost! ”

Cui Qinggong paced quickly in the room with his hands behind his back, thinking about a way to get out of this quagmire, the best way was to attack Huainan and seize food and supplies from there, but this time was not the other time, there was Wei Deqing in the north, and Zhang Huan in the south deployed a total of 100,000 troops in Shannan and Jiangnan to support Chu Xingshui.

Cui Qinggong couldn't help but regret deeply, he knew that he gritted his teeth at the beginning, ignored the pressure of Pei Jun and Zhang Huan, and took Huainan in one go, how could there be such trouble today?

Regret medicine is not sold, now the plan, can only think about how to get out of trouble, development is a matter of the future, at this time, Cui Qinggong glanced at it, it seemed that he saw a figure flashing at the door, he was unhappy in his heart, and couldn't help shouting: "If you dare to hide again, I will kill you." ”

"The prince is angry, he is a subordinate." I saw a person slowly walking in at the door, but it was his staff member Ma Siyi.

When Cui Qinggong saw him, he couldn't help but be annoyed, and smashed Gu Cheng's good news with his hand, "What are you hiding!" Am I a ghost? ”

It was his idea at the beginning, and let his subordinates try to eat themselves, which caused the situation of today's generals supporting their own troops, and now how can they end up.

Ma Si suspicious seemed to know Cui Qinggong's dissatisfaction with himself in his heart, he didn't dare to dodge, he took a hard shot, and said with a deep salute: "Don't worry, the prince, his subordinates are here to solve the prince's doubts." ”

"Say!" Although Cui Qinggong is very dissatisfied with him, he has nothing to do now, so he can only listen to it.

"The subordinates want to offer three strategies, which can be called near, medium and far, the near strategy is to immediately cease war with Wei Deqing to prevent the general from slaughtering the people in the name of war, and the middle strategy is to borrow food from Li Xilie, I think under the oppression of the prince, he dare not borrow, but let us temporarily get through this difficult situation, and the long-term strategy is to find a sharp weapon to deal with Wei Deqing's growing strength."

"What sharp weapon?" Cui Qinggong reluctantly agreed with the first two strategies, but he was very interested in the third strategy, he knew that since Ma Si said this, he must have a draft in his heart, just after speaking, he suddenly thought of something, and asked anxiously: "Are you talking about the thunder that Zhang Huan released when he captured Kaiyang City?" ”

"Exactly!" Ma Siwei nodded slowly, "If my subordinates are not mistaken, that kind of thing is not something that is mined in the depths of Qilian Mountain, but something that can also be prepared by the prince." ”

"What's that?" Cui Qinggong is overjoyed, if he has Zhang Huan's heavenly thunder, why worry that the world does not belong to him? He grabbed Ma Simi's collar, and his eyes glared at him with unusually vicious eyes: "Say it quickly, what is that?" ”

"I don't know about my subordinates for the time being, but

Ma Sisu was frightened by Cui Qinggong's fierce appearance for a while.

"But a fart!" Cui Qinggong was deflated for a while, and pushed him away, his face was extremely disappointed, Zhang Huan's heavenly thunder is known to everyone in the world, but no one knows what it is.

"Don't be disappointed, my subordinates have asked many craftsmen, and several of them have said, maybe it is gunpowder, ordinary gunpowder only burns and smokes, but after improvement, it can explode."

"Really?" Cui Qinggong's heart that has just been extinguished is soaring again! A fire of hope rose in the ground, he patted Ma Siyi's shoulder, and said with a smile: "I'll leave this matter to you, if you can figure it out, then I'll make you a long history." ”

"Yes!" Ma Si hesitated, but did not leave.

"Is there anything else you can do?"

"My subordinates still have something to report." Ma Si hesitated whether to say it, and finally he gritted his teeth and said: "My subordinates just got the news that Gu Cheng's so-called annihilation of 20,000 enemies was actually the slaughter of the people of Songcheng and Yucheng counties. ”

"Of course I do." Cui Qinggong said disapprehantly: "With his ability, how can he be Wei Deqing's opponent, it is nothing more than trying to follow Ma Dawei to cheat my military rations, and I will have my own opinions on this matter." ”

The subordinate meant that without waiting for Ma Siyi to finish speaking, Cui Qinggong waved his hand impatiently to interrupt him, "You don't care about this matter, it's only serious to get Zhang Huan's heavenly thunder out for me, and I will remember your great achievements." ”

Ma Si was suspicious that he didn't take the slaughter of the city to heart at all, and he no longer paid attention to himself, he couldn't help but sigh secretly, Cui Qinggong really couldn't do a big deal, didn't he know the seriousness of this matter?