"It's wonderful, this comparison, they don't even have to do business in Yan Kingdom, and if we surrender, we can get a large overseas market, as long as people with normal brains will agree." The more Zeng Dong listened, the more excited he became.

Jiang Huanyan still had questions in her heart: "You said that the Song army knew that it was hopeless to storm Liuzhou, why did Deng Yuanjue still garrison the army outside the city and refused to leave?"

Zeng Dong thought about it carefully and said in surprise: "Does Your Highness mean that Gao Lan's sneak attack on Penglai was planned by Deng Yuanjue behind his back?" ”

Jiang Huanyan nodded: "Apart from this reason, I can't think of any reason why he has been refusing to withdraw his troops." ”

"Why don't we go out of the city and teach him a lesson, anyway, we have more troops than theirs now." Zeng Dong was a little angry.

Jiang Huanyan shook his head: "A frontal attack is not the best policy, even if we win in the end, our losses will not be small." Since he can let Zhu Tingxun sneak attack my rear, won't I find someone to sneak attack his rear? ”

Zeng Dong's eyes lit up at first, and then he wondered: "Do you mean Xiang Chu from Suizhou?" The state of Chu was destroyed by us and Deng Yuanjue, will he listen to us? ”

"He will, don't forget that he fought Xia Kou with General Tian before. Xiang Chu knows better than anyone else what will happen if he is trapped in a lonely city like Suizhou, if he doesn't seize the opportunity now, when Deng Yuanjue goes back, there will really be no chance. Jiang Huanyan said firmly.

"Then I'll send someone to Suizhou to deliver a letter to Xiang Chu now, so that Deng Yuanjue can also taste the taste of being attacked in the rear." Zeng Dong said viciously.

That night, under the cover of night, 30,000 troops quietly left Liuzhou City and headed straight for Anyang. As Jiang Huanyan judged, Gao Lan faced the risk of food shortage after retaking Penglai. Originally, the grain storage in the city was enough for his 20,000 troops to support a month, but after the wharf was burned down, the people in the city, instigated by well-intentioned people, went to the Taishou Mansion to ask Gao Lan to open a warehouse and release grain.

Gao Lan faced the angry people, knowing that he was in the wrong, how dare he not agree, and released the only grain in the warehouse. Fortunately, Penglai City is not far from Anyang, and he asked Zhu Tingxun for help that day, and the grain and grass could be transported the next day.

"Lord Taiwei, it's not good, our grain and grass have been robbed by the Qi army." A sergeant rushed in.

Gao Lan was shocked: "What? Why was it so careless, and what can I do now? How long do we have enough food to last? ”

The sergeant said tremblingly: "It's only enough for three days." ”

"Hurry up and ask the Emperor Taishang for help again, this time send more people and horses, and be sure to transport the grain and grass back." Gao Lan is really anxious, there is no food, not to mention the people in the city, even the 20,000 troops he brought will be shaken.

Gao Lan sent 10,000 people to Anyang to respond, and Zhu Tingxun also sent 10,000 people to escort him. thought that this time it would be foolproof, but it was blocked by Zeng Dong's 20,000 troops halfway.

As soon as the two armies fought, although the result was decisive, the food was not delivered after all.

Zhu Tingxun, who was in Anyang, was anxious, and sent another 10,000 troops to support, wanting to rush through the defense line of the Qi army.

Who knew that the army had only been gone for less than an hour, and 10,000 Qi troops appeared under the city of Anyang, which frightened Zhu Tingxun to think that this was just the vanguard force, and quickly summoned back the people who had been sent out just now.

It turned out that Zeng Dong divided the 30,000 army into two according to Jiang Huanyan's instructions, of which 20,000 were personally led by himself to block the grain transport team used to block Anyang, and the remaining 10,000 were led by his deputy general and ambushed near Anyang City. If Zhu Tingxun sends reinforcements again, he will attack the city directly.

"Lord Taiwei, the food stock in the city has been used up, and the soldiers are talking about it."

"What are they talking about?" Gao Lan was a little flustered.

"Some people say they want to go to the people's houses to rob them, some people say they want to go back to Anyang secretly, and a small number of people say that they should simply surrender the Qi army, so that at least they will have a full meal." Speaking of which, the sergeant's did not dare to raise his head.

Gao Lan was furious when he heard this: "When the national disaster is at hand, they don't want to serve the country, but they all think about surrendering." You go and find out all these people who have said they want to surrender and kill them all, and I don't think anyone else will dare to mention surrender in the future. ”

The sergeant trembled and said: "In addition to the soldiers, the people in the city are also talking around, saying that if they do not surrender to the Qi army, after the Qi army breaks through the city, they will take revenge for the last city break, and then the people of the whole city will be slaughtered." ”

"Go check on me, arrest all these people who spread rumors, and behead them in public." Gao Lan began to roar, and at this time he didn't care about the lives of the people.

In two days, more than 1,000 civilians and dozens of sergeants in Penglai City were beheaded for spreading rumors. Although Gao Lan's practice of killing chickens and making an example of monkeys blocked the mouths of the people in the city, and they no longer dared to discuss military and political affairs in public, the anger in the hearts of the people would not be extinguished because of this.

Gao Lan has been in the officialdom for many years, so he naturally knows that this will cause dissatisfaction among the people, but he can't stop, because in addition to preventing the spread of rumors, he also wants to use this as an excuse to confiscate the surplus food in the homes of these killed people.

Zeng Dong, who was outside the city, seemed to expect Gao Lan to do this, and he was not in a hurry to lead his army to attack the city, but only cut off the connection between Anyang and Penglai.

In order to stabilize the morale of the army, Gao Lan had to find various excuses to kill more civilians and use their rations to subsidize his soldiers.

The Yan army defending the city also guessed the intention of his own lieutenant at this time, and he was even more unscrupulous in looting the people, and at first he knew that he was looking for an excuse, and then he simply went directly into the door to rob it, and if the people dared to stop it, they would be killed on the spot for the crime of collaborating with the enemy.

After half a month, the people have killed a lot, but the state of the Yan army's lack of food has not improved. The people in the city already lived by fishing, and after the wharf was destroyed, the little food they had left in their homes could not last a few days.

The Yan army could no longer grab food after a few days, so a few bold people began to attack the idea of the rich merchants in the city.

These wealthy merchants all took care of the home, and when they saw someone robbing them, they naturally repelled them. But because he was worried about the identity of the other party's officers and soldiers, he did not dare to be ruthless.

The sergeant who had suffered a loss was naturally not convinced, and when he returned to the barracks, he added fuel and vinegar to the fact that he had been beaten by a wealthy businessman, and suddenly the entire barracks blew up and came to the door to ask for an explanation.

Those nurses are okay with the little hooligans, and where have they seen the formation in front of them. Hundreds of people carried the big logs used for the siege, and they smashed open the door of the mansion at once, and everyone rushed up, killing people when they saw them, robbing treasures, and naturally they would not let go when they saw beautiful girls. With a single stick of incense, the entire mansion was ransacked.

This news was transmitted back to the barracks, and at the beginning, those sergeants who did not dare to act recklessly could still bear it, since someone took the lead, wouldn't it be a loss if they didn't grab a handful themselves. Besides, if you don't blame the public, even if Lord Taiwei blames him in the future, it will be impossible to kill everyone, right?

It was under the influence of this psychology that in just one night, the rich merchants in the city were ransacked, and the red-eyed sergeants did not even let go of Gao Lan's distant relatives.

When Gao Lan received the news, he couldn't stop it, the sergeant was completely out of control, and if he rashly came out at this time, he was afraid that they would not recognize him as a captain.

"General, Penglai is completely in chaos, even the soldiers defending the city have gone to participate in the robbery, let's take advantage of the chaos to attack the city." In the camp of the Qi army, Zeng Dong's adjutant general suggested.

Zeng Dong shook his head: "It's not time yet, although you can take Penglai by attacking the city now, it can't have the effect that Your Highness wants." You go to someone to spread the situation of Penglai City to Anyang and other cities in Yan Kingdom, and His Royal Highness wants Zhu Tingxun to completely lose the hearts of the people. ”

Half a month later, the tragic situation of Penglai spread throughout the Yan Kingdom, and the people were horrified, and the little good feeling that Zhu Tingxun would rather abdicate than give up Anyang was gone, and even Ning Zeping, who was far away in Hanzhong, and Ning Buqu, who was far away in Nanjun, suffered several defeats in a row because of the shaking of the people's hearts.

After Zeng Dong saw the reactions from all over the place, he felt that it was almost time to attack the city. As soon as the 20,000 army arrived at the city of Penglai, before they could do anything, the people in the city rioted collectively, and the Qi army took the city almost bloodlessly, and Gao Lan was also killed by the indignant people when he fled.

"Repair the wharf as soon as possible, so that the warships outside the port can first use small boats to transport food in and distribute it to the people." After the war, Zeng Dong saw the tragic image in the city, and he couldn't bear it.

"Troops will definitely be dispatched, but will fight Xiakou or Zhoukou?" In Suizhou, far away in Chu, Xiang Chu was discussing Jiang Huanyan's letter with Huang Guixuan and others.

Xiang Chu clearly knew that the reason why he was able to occupy Suizhou was not because he could fight well, but because both Qi and Song intended to leave a buffer zone on the border between the two sides.

"Although Xiao Che is dead, the remaining Lei Zhengming is not easy to deal with, there is still a naval army of Yue Shouming on the Yangtze River, I am afraid that it is not the best policy to fight Xiakou." Huang Guixuan thought for a while.

"Then let's fight Zhoukou, after Zhou Yunjing was transferred, there was only one Zhou Buzhou left, this person is a civil official, it shouldn't be difficult to deal with. Besides, our Xiang family's influence in Zhoukou is not small, as long as we can incite the people in the city to cooperate with us, it will not be a problem to take Zhoukou. Xiang Yi, who was listening on the sidelines, blurted out that he had been following Huang Guixuan for the past two years, and he had also read a lot of military books.

But Xiang Chu's eyes kept staring at the map and did not speak.

Huang Guixuan knew what he wanted: "General, don't worry, since Jiang Huanyan came to invite us to send troops to attack the Song State, then the Qi State will not attack us behind our backs." As for Xiakou, Deng Yuanjue was not in Chudi, and Lei Zhengming did not dare to rush into the army. ”

Xiang Chu nodded slightly and asked, "Chen Shaodong of Shouchun has been cooperating with us for more than three years, can he fully believe it?" ”

Huang Guixuan hesitated a little and said: "Last time, you and Tian Wuji jointly sent troops to Xiakou, but Chen Shaodong did not stop supplying us, so he should be trustworthy." ”