King Yan led 50,000 elite soldiers to leave Yongping and march to Daning, after which he mysteriously disappeared and was never heard from again. The scouts could not inquire about the whereabouts of the Yan army; The 100,000 Daning elite soldiers guarding Songting Pass also did not make any movement, and they were still waiting for King Yan to throw himself into the net. The only small change was that the governor Liu Zhen sent a war report to Li Jinglong, saying that he had intercepted a secret letter from Zhu Di, the king of Yan, to Bu Wan, the commander of Daning, the day before yesterday, and the words in the letter revealed that King Yan and Bu Wan were already very familiar with each other and had a close relationship, and the king of Yan viciously slandered and criticized the governor Chen Heng in the letter, saying that he was originally a subordinate of the king in the past, how the king treated him well, and how the boy Chen Heng was ungrateful to the imperial court. "Bu Gong and Di are thick, and Di knows the Gong very well; And Heng Zhi is a human being, the world despises him, Bu Gong is righteous, how can he work with Heng? ”

Liu Zhen said in the battle report that there were no more and more clear words in King Yan's secret letter, and he was not good at casually convicting Bu Wan of collaborating with the enemy and treason when the evidence was not completely conclusive, but if Bu Wan really fornicated with King Yan, I am afraid that he couldn't wait to catch the evidence of his crime, and the entire Daning Dusi would fall into the hands of King Yan. So just in case, he still arrested Bu Wan and put him in prison, locked him up first, in short, so that he could no longer contact the army, and it was impossible to secretly contact King Yan anymore. Report to the general to know.

Li Jinglong read the battle report and said, "Shrewd!" Immediately afterwards, he sighed: "Rubbish! He appreciated Liu Zhen's decisiveness in arresting Bu Wan, so he said he was shrewd; At the same time, he was angry that since Liu Zhen had already caught the Yan envoy who sent the secret letter, why had he not been able to find out the whereabouts of the 50,000 Yan army, it was really a waste.

Inside and outside the Beiping city walls, the see-saw stalemate between the two sides continues. Li Jinglong ordered his soldiers to attack in turn without stopping. The mysterious disappearance of King Yan and 50,000 elite soldiers is not good news anyway; He was afraid that the Yan army would make any unexpected moves, but he had no choice but to focus on attacking the lonely city of Beiping, hoping to distract the Yan King and disturb the Yan army's heart. This is also the only way for the general to do it at the moment. In the eyes of the people of the world, the imperial court's 500,000 troops besieged a lonely city in Beiping that was only defended by 50,000 people, and King Yan really had a disadvantage. However, now, the general Li Jinglong and Yanwang Zhu Di know in their hearts which side the advantage is in their hands.

A few days later, another battle report from Liu Zhen unexpectedly passed from Guangning all the way to Li Jinglong. General Li was shocked when he received the report: it turned out that the mysterious disappearance of the 50,000 elite soldiers of King Yan was to bypass the Songting Pass where Liu Zhen, Chen Heng and Bu Wan were stationed, and to take a small road from Liujiakou to attack Daning. However, instead of using the traditional siege method, the Yan army hid in the mountains and forests outside the city, and Zhu Di, the king of Yan, sent a soldier disguised as a civilian into the city to deliver a letter to King Ning, inviting King Ning to meet outside the city with the princess and the prince. Zhu Quan, the king of Ning, was naturally overjoyed, and thought of an excuse to go out of the city to see the fourth brother of King Yan, but he never expected that the bold King Yan would take King Ning's family hostage, and wanted to coerce the Daning army guarding the city to open the city gate and let the Yan army enter the city. King Yan had King Ning's whole family in his hands, and he was relieved and bold to eat and drink in King Ning's mansion for seven days, but it was obviously not just eating and drinking for nothing. Seven days later, for some reason, all the Daning troops surrendered to King Yan, including the Duoyan Sanwei cavalry that made everyone salivate, all gathered around King Ning's mansion, chanting in unison Long live King Yan and collectively defecting. Daning commanded Zhu Jian to fight alone, and was soon chopped into meat sauce by his rebellious brothers. The chief Shi Shi of King Ning's mansion persuaded King Ning not to follow King Yan to rebel, and pointed at King Yan's nose and scolded the traitor, and was sentenced to dismemberment by King Yan in public, and he was still scolding until death. Daning City became the territory of King Yan in the blink of an eye, and the world-famous elite army Daning Army became defending the city for the anti-king Zhu Di.

At the same time that King Yan seized Daning, Liu Zhen and Chen Heng, who were guarding Songting Pass, received an urgent report and immediately led the army to turn around and return to Daning. However, halfway through, he received the news that Daning had fallen, so he set up camp on the way, preparing to attack Daning tomorrow. As a result, that night, just after the second watch, the governor Chen Heng teamed up with Xu Li and Chen Wen to lead troops to attack Liu Zhen's camp. And Liu Zhen finally woke up at this time, the secret letter intercepted by King Yan to Bu Wan the day before yesterday was completely a conspiracy to frame him, and a secret letter removed Bu Wan, who was loyal to the imperial court, but covered up Chen Heng, who really harbored evil intentions, without flaws. Liu Zhen understood the truth at this moment, but it was too late, so he could only watch Chen Heng collect all the 100,000 Daning soldiers under his command, happily defect to King Yan, and flee to Guangning alone.

King Yan seized Daning and included the elite Da Ning division of the Ming Dynasty and Zhu Quan, the king of Ning, into his own pocket. Everyone knows that the Yan army, which annexed Duoyan Sanwei, will return to Beiping in a few days, and everyone's hearts are hanging. Li Jinglong immediately ordered to intensify the siege of Beiping with a tenfold offensive that was ten times larger than the previous one, and strive to take Beiping before the king of Yan returned from Daning. Otherwise, the 500,000-strong army surrounded Beiping for a month and gained nothing, which was really unreasonable, and he couldn't hold it on the face of the general.

The siege continued with great difficulty, day after day. The weather is getting colder and colder, and soon it is the time when the water drips into ice; Both the Yan and Southern armies suffered heavy casualties. Shen Ruoyu admired Zhu Gaochi and Princess Yan more and more in his heart, and in the absence of King Yan, he led the army and people of the whole city to hold the lonely city for a month, not giving the enemy the slightest opportunity. He heard that Zhu Gaoxu had gone on the expedition with King Yan, and with the character of this second highness, he was definitely more suitable for charging into battle than for the infant city to hold on.

On 22 October, Li Jinglong once again summoned the generals to discuss the military situation. He took the battle report and asked Shen Ruoliao uncharacteristically:

"Lord Jian Jun used to be the favorite guest of His Royal Highness King Yan for a while, and he was inseparable from King Yan, as if King Yan's right-hand man, I think he must be very familiar with a few powerful generals close to King Yan?"

Shen Ruoyu said with reservations: "It's just that I understand; After all, I haven't been with King Yan for a long time, and I have very little contact with Yan Jun. In contrast, he is more familiar with the civil officials around King Yan. ”

Li Jinglong said: "The spies came to report that on October 19, King Yan met with Chen Heng in Huizhou, and incorporated all the troops of the people and horses of the Daning Dusi, Duoyan Sanwei, and King Ning into the Yan army, integrated with the original army under his own command, reorganized, and even imitated the division of the Son of Heaven and set up the Five Armies. The regulations of the five armed forces are still the same, each army has a chief general, two deputy generals, and the list is here, which is quite like that. These generals and deputy generals, the overseers should be familiar with them, right? Zhang Yu, former general of the Chinese army, Zheng Heng, deputy general on the left, and He Shou on the right; Zhu Neng, former general of the left army, Zhu Rong, deputy general of the left, and Li Jun, deputy general of the right; Li Bin, the former general of the right army, Xu Li, the left adjutant general, and Meng Shan, the right adjutant general; Xu Zhong, the former general of the former army, Chen Wen, the left deputy general, and Wu Da, the right deputy general; Fang Kuan, the former general of the rear army, the left deputy general and Yunzhong, and the right deputy general Mao Quan. Who are these people, and can you tell us about them? ”

Shen Ruoyu hesitated for a moment and said:

"I'm afraid I don't know as much of these people as the generals here. Among these fifteen people, I have only seen two people, Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng, the former used to be the commander of King Yan, and the latter used to be a thousand households, both of whom were the most important generals of King Yan, and their martial arts were very strong, and their prestige in the Yan army was also very high. Both of them have calm personalities, and every word and deed must be carefully considered. In contrast, Zhang Yu is more cheerful and powerful; Although Zhu Neng is much younger than Zhang Yu, he is more quiet and introverted, and he is a scheming general. Other than that, I really don't know anything else; I only know that He Shou, Li Jun, Meng Shan, Wu Da, Fang Kuan, He Yunzhong and Mao Chuan were all capable generals in the Yan King's guard, Zheng Heng, Zhu Rong, Li Bin, Xu Li, Xu Zhong, and Chen Wen were all surrendered to the Yan army after the Yan King raised an army, like Xu Li and Chen Wen, who had just surrendered. But because they were originally the old department of King Yan, it was not surprising that they surrendered to King Yan, and it was not surprising that they were appointed as a general by King Yan just after surrendering. It can be said that they were all Yan Wang's people in the first place. Chen Heng is the same, he was originally the commander of King Yan's guards, and he was promoted to the commander of Beiping, and he has always been by King Yan's side, but after he ascended the throne today, in order to prevent changes in Beiping, he asked Xie Gui to replace him and transfer him to Daning. Although the king of Yan did not appoint him as a general, he will be reused later. ”

There was a moment of silence. Li Jinglong sighed:

"Is it possible that there is no guard around Beiping that is not the old department of King Yan, and there is no place that is not guarded by King Yan's people? It seems that the imperial court's strategy of cutting the feudal domain has instead achieved the success of the Yan king. ”

An Luhou Wu Jie said: "The general does not need to worry; When the imperial court transferred the Beiping army away from King Yan, the action was actually not big, and it was still limited to Kaiping, Daning, Miyun and other guards around Beiping. Once the boundaries of Baoding and Cangzhou are crossed, there will be no more old departments of King Yan, and there will be no more Daning. ”

Li Jinglong said: "The anti-king has now led his army into Songting Pass and is heading in the direction of Yongping. I want to rest in Yongping for two days, and then I will return to Beiping. What we have to decide now is how to deal with the hundreds of thousands of Daning troops brought back by the anti-king, including the Duoyan Sanwei among them. ”

Chen Hui said: "We have besieged Beiping for a month, and the fortified city has not been conquered, and the king of Yan has led the army back, attacking inside and outside, and the situation is not good." ”

Li Jinglong said gloomily: "A month ago, didn't someone say that the anti-king led 50,000 people to Yongping with no chance of winning, and it was the end of the road, and he was scared. ”

Qu Neng, who was on the seat, heard the general's words, and suddenly lost his temper, and said unconvinced:

"General, when the Lord of the Prison Army advised you to chase and intercept King Yan and prevent the Yan army from approaching Daning, you also said that the anti-king would definitely not be able to enter Daning, and he would definitely be wiped out by the Daning army. And now what is the result? ”

Li Jinglong said coldly: "General Qu, I didn't expect that Liu Zhen could be so stupid that he turned a blind eye to the biggest traitor Chen Heng in front of him, but instead put the unrelenting Bu Wan in prison and fell into the Yan thief's counter-plot. ”

Qu Neng was not to be outdone: "Then when the anti-king led the army to rescue Yongping, did the general ever think that his real calculation was to wave his army north and go straight to Daning?" In the final analysis, each of us has fallen for King Yan's tricks, and you, the general, are no exception. ”

Seeing that the two were about to quarrel, He Fu immediately persuaded:

"Okay, General Qu, why are you so angry? How many years have you had this temper, and you haven't suffered less, why can't you change it? ”

Sheng Yong also said: "The most important thing now is not to hold accountable, but to immediately discuss countermeasures, and Yan Jun will kill him." ”

Li Jinglong said quietly: "That's right; General Qu, can you talk about it first, what should be done under the army? ”

Qu Neng said: "Of course, continue to attack the city!" We have been fighting for a month, and the Yan defenders in Beiping City have suffered all casualties, and only some old, weak, wounded and disabled soldiers are still resisting stubbornly. ”

"General Qu, if we continue to attack, we will only have the old, weak, and disabled soldiers left to fight against King Yan's Duoyan Sanwei." Chen Hui said.

Ping'an said: "There are still 200,000 elite soldiers here in Zhengcunba who have not moved, even if Duoyan Sanwei pounces, it will not be unstoppable, right?" The last general felt that the siege had been going on for a month, and Beiping was ready to go, so it was better not to give up. ”

Sheng Yong said: "Even if you finally conquer Beiping, you have to go back and fight a vicious battle with the Daning people and horses of King Yan, the loss is too great, and it is not worth it." ”

"How come," Shen Ruoyu said, "If you break Beiping, you will end the nest of King Yan, and he will be finished; Looking back, the princess and the princess are all in our hands, and he will not dare to touch us with the army again if he borrows 10,000 guts. The end of the first war is worth a lot of money, saving a lot of trouble in the future. ”

He was slightly stunned; Everyone looked at him with strange eyes, and said nothing, as if he had said something very inappropriate.

Shen Ruoyu blushed in embarrassment, and said embarrassedly:

"I'm just saying that, my personal opinion, don't mind the generals."

Li Jinglong smiled and said, "Lord Supervisor's words are very reasonable. No wonder the Son of Heaven appreciates adults so much. Generals, the siege battle has reached the most difficult and critical time, we must persevere to the end and conquer Beiping before the Yan army returns to the division. Once Beiping was taken, the entire war ended victoriously. The generals listened to the order: In the morning of tomorrow, with General Qu Neng as the vanguard, when he heard the order, he began to attack on all sides at the same time! ”

Everyone stood up and replied in unison, "The last general obeys!" ”

Out of the big tent, Shen Ruoyu walked behind He Fu and Qu Neng, and heard Deputy General Zuo say to Qu Neng:

"I said, it turns out that under the hands of Liang Guogong, your bull temper has not been rectified, right? Why don't you learn a long lesson? Do you have to make Cao Guogong angry? ”

Qu Neng said angrily: "If you have the ability, he will fix me." If he can have half of the generals of Liang Guogong, I can let him be rectified, and I am still happy in my heart. All day long, they only give orders and talk on paper. He knows what it means to fight? I really think I'm a blue jade, look at his shelf. ”

He Fu sighed: "If you are a general appointed by the Son of Heaven, you should obey the military order unconditionally, no matter how you say it, you can't not save face for the general in front of the generals, right?" Looking back, the Son of Heaven blames it, how many heads do you have? ”

Qu Neng said: "If the Son of Heaven is really to blame, I, Qu Neng, really dare to tell the Son of Heaven that the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty are all dry meals, and they don't understand things on the battlefield at all, and they can't choose people." This general is incompetent, and he is still self-righteous, dragging mud and water, and sooner or later he delays the war and harms all 500,000 troops. And what kind of prison army, he is also a mediocre person, a hairy child with a big fart, an embroidered pillow, he can only accompany Banzai to play and juju and promote weaving, and he can't do his job. ”

He Fu was just about to persuade him, but the corner of his eye swept to Shen Ruoliao behind him, he was taken aback, turned his head to look at him, turned his head away, and stopped talking. Qu Neng also glanced back, and when he saw that it was Shen Ruoliao, he said coldly:

"It turned out to be Lord Overseer. Are you going to relay Qu Neng's words to the general? ”

Shen Ruoyu was a little helpless: "General Qu, I have the jade box of the Son of Heaven in my hand, and I can directly present it to the Son of Heaven." ”

Qu Neng was a little angry: "My lord, please feel free to complain; The imperial court sent a prison army over, but it was originally not enough to succeed and more than to lose. ”

Shen Ruoyu couldn't help laughing: "General Qu is too right. I immediately wrote a report to the Son of Heaven, and General Qu was loyal and commendable, and he should be rewarded by the imperial court. It's just that the general is more than brave, but not enough. With the general's bravery, it was only a matter of time before the Changyi Gate was breached; But once the general enters the Changyi Gate, he will definitely be defeated, does the general know? ”

Qu Neng said: "What do you mean by this? Now that I have broken through the gates, I have won. ”

Shen Ruoyu said: "Only by knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent can one not be defeated in a hundred battles." The general does not know himself, and he does not know the other. I don't know that my soldiers have been attacking the city for a month, and there have been heavy casualties but no progress, and the morale has plummeted. King Yan raised his army for nearly four months, winning consecutive battles, from 800 dead soldiers to 80,000 active troops; The news of the annexation of Daning was tantamount to adding insult to injury, and now the Yan army had 160,000 people, in addition to all the troops defending the city, which was more than doubled. There was a panic in our army, and the soldiers all felt that King Yan was a god, or there was a god to help him, and we had taken advantage of the disadvantage, and there would be no good results. Pessimism is so serious, how much does General Qu know? How can such morale win? ”

Qu Neng looked at him hesitantly: "How do you know?" ”

Shen Ruoyu smiled: "I, I'm just taking advantage of the big guy's loopholes." You are busy attacking the city, and when you are not fighting, you have to quarrel with each other, and you are half dead tired all day long. ”

Qu Neng said: "I don't know what about him? ”

Shen Ruoyu said: "General Qu attacked the Changyi Gate, and the tactics and tactics used were exactly the same as the offensives of the other eight gates. In the final analysis, if the attack on the nine gates is the same as it is now, it will all be called a failure. Among the nine gates of Beiping, four are urn cities. Zhengyang Gate in the south, Anzhen Gate in the northeast, Qihua Gate in the east, and Changyi Gate in the west. The urn city of Zhengyangmen is two-fold, and the urn walls of Changyi Gate and Qihua Gate are built very high. After General Qu desperately entered the Changyi Gate, he found that he had only sent himself into an even more impregnable encirclement; Outside the city gate, at least there is a vast world, and the big deal is nothing more than attacking the city and leading the troops to retreat; However, in the urn city, as soon as the city gate behind him was closed, there were tall copper walls and iron walls on all sides, and the ambush soldiers suddenly broke out, so there was no way to retreat, and it was really difficult to fly with wings, so I could only wait for the whole army to be wiped out. ”

Qu Neng was speechless for a while; He really didn't know the structure of the Changyi Gate that he had been attacking beforehand, and he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed right now.

Shen Ruoyu saw his difficulty and said with a smile: "General Qu, no matter how I say it, I am also from Beiping, can I not know what the situation is in my own family." I think this battle is with your striker, I don't know if it's okay? ”

Qu Neng was slightly stunned: "Lord Prison Army? ”

Shen Ruoyu said: "I can't just eat dry rice as the general said." I have to do something about it. ”

Qu Neng said: "That's not good; The Overseer is not in a position to charge. If something happens to you, we won't be able to eat in front of the emperor. ”

Shen Ruoxiao smiled slightly: "What can I have three long and two short?" ”

Qu Neng opened his mouth and stammered.

Shen Ruoyu said: "General Qu, although Changyi Gate is an urn city, it still has to be conquered. Previously the soldiers from you to the soldiers below did not know the situation, and the assault was bound to fail. But now, now that everyone has been mentally prepared, maybe the strong attack will eventually succeed. After all, 'put to death and then live', so be sure to let all the warriors know that there is an ambush in the urn city. Once the city is invaded, the army outside the city must continue to cooperate with the artillery attack with strong firepower, and the explosives must be brought into the city. ”

Qu Neng nodded again and again: "The last general understands!" ”