Li Dongguo saw it, he knew that the general trend had gone, these soldiers under him were originally Taiping soldiers who had not seen sword soldiers for many years, and it was okay to put arrows and stones on the head of the city, if it was a fight with the thieves with a knife and a gun, then don't mention it, I was still counting on recruiting those western troops to defeat the thieves with heavy money, but I didn't expect it to be over before I started. He didn't bother to pay attention to He Juzhong, turned the horse's head, kicked the horse twice, and fled backwards.

Li Dongguo returned to the Yandao Yamen, did not dismount, and shouted to the remaining Qianzong: "You go to the treasury quickly, load all the remaining silver on the pack horse, and we will go out of the city immediately!" ”

"Yes, sir!" After a while, more than thirty or forty mussels came out, and sixty thousand taels of silver were placed in the cage box on his back, and the rest of the silver had been thrown on the battlefield. Li Dongguo immediately led everyone to the south gate, but fortunately he didn't encounter any trouble along the way, and the south gate was not controlled by the thieves. He breathed a sigh of relief when he left the city, but he heard Mr. Qian ask, "My lord, where are we going now?" “

Li Dongguo thought for a moment and replied, "To the west!" “

"To the west?" Mr. Qian was stunned when he heard this, and thought that the eldest man was frightened, so he hurriedly reminded: "My lord, isn't that going to Shaanxi?" The thieves came from there. ”

"What do you know? The guards of the surrounding prefectures and counties are not accustomed to fighting, it would be good to be able to protect themselves, how can they save Pingyang Mansion? There are thousands of elite soldiers in Hajindu, and it is safest for us to go there to ask for reinforcements! Speaking of this, Li Dongguo kicked the horse's belly and headed west. He is a smart man, and he knows that although he is not like He Juzhong, who is a vassal of Pingyang Mansion and has the duty to defend Pingyang, he has lost so much of the 150,000 taels of silver at once, and he will definitely not be able to run away if he is not strictly supervised. But he took the money to Chaoyi, and the Shaanxi soldiers of Jiedu recaptured Pingyang Mansion. First, it can be used to restore the land, and second, it can be reimbursed for the cost of using the army. Even if you can't make meritorious service and get promoted, at least one merit and crime can't be offset.

Binh Duong Fucheng.

It was already dark, the blue-gray stone floor was full of dried blood, the doors of the houses on both sides of the road were open, corpses, lost belongings, and weapons were scattered everywhere, the air was filled with the smell of blood and fire, and a dozen crows stood on a corpse, sharing the rich food, when there was a sound of horses' hooves in the distance, and these crows let out a disgruntled cry. Flapping his wings and flying up the locust tree beside the road, he stared at the visitor with ominous eyes.

"Uncle!" Li Guo excitedly twisted his body on the horseback, as if this made him feel more comfortable: "I have already counted it, and there are almost 20,000 taels of silver in those boxes." I heard a few rebels say that this is the bounty brought by Li Dongguo, the imperial history of Yandao, to pay them and defeat us, hehehe! It's all up to us! ”

"Hmm!" Li Zicheng's face showed a disdainful smile: "These dog officials, if they don't owe the salaries of the officers and soldiers, how can we take Pingyang Mansion City so easily?" There must be more silver and salt in the flue yamen mansion, you go and occupy it at once, and count the goods. This was very useful for us! “

"Uncle!" Li Guo's face showed a hint of embarrassment: "The Yandao Yamen was occupied by the rebels, and they didn't let us in!" ”

"What?" Li Zicheng reined in the war horse and turned his head to look at Li Guo, who hurriedly explained. It turned out that last night there was a general named Wang Keping among the Shaanxi rebels, who was quite brave on weekdays, and last night he did not rob houses like others, but gathered more than 200 soldiers. robbed the Yamen of the Salt Road (after Li Dongguo left), although the large boxes of silver were taken away, there were still a lot of cloth, grain, salt and other soft goods. He used these possessions to gather a lot of rebellious soldiers, adding up to six or seven hundred men, and a lot of firearms, and became more and more bold, and the peasant army's letter and mission to give it up to the yamen, but they were driven out. claimed that if it weren't for the sake of the township party, he would have cut off his head, and he claimed that he and Li Zicheng were on an equal footing, and that half of each side of the city would be in battle, otherwise they would have to meet each other!

The more Li Zicheng listened, the tighter his brows wrinkled, and at the end the two thick eyebrows were almost connected, Li Guo saw that this was a sign of his uncle's anger to the extreme, and he was about to say a few words of comfort, but heard Li Zicheng shout: "I don't know how to lift the dog thing, why don't you take someone to cut off this guy's head immediately?" ”

"Uncle, I have just gone to see the Yandao Yamen, surrounded by a stone wall more than two feet high, the gate is thick and heavy, and there is a watchtower. These guys also have a lot of firearms, and if they attack hard, they are afraid of a lot of casualties. ”

"Then we have to take it down!" Li Zicheng interrupted Li Guo's defense: "Why do we want to take this Pingyang Mansion City? Isn't it for the money inside the Yamen of the Salt Road? Besides, we're going to stay here for a few more days, recruiting troops, and keeping this guy who isn't the same as us staying in the city, who knows if he'll stab us in the back? ”

Li Guo nodded, he was about to turn around and gather the soldiers and horses, but Li Zicheng grabbed the reins, and turned back and asked puzzledly, "Uncle, what's wrong?" ”

"Wait?" Li Zicheng showed a smug smile: "I have a way, I can take down this king without spending a single soldier." ”

Yandao Yamen.

Wang Keping was lying on the soft big bed, crossing Erlang's legs, and the maidservant who originally belonged to Li Dongguo was kneeling on the low table beside her in disheveled clothes, and was tearfully smiling and beating her legs for him. And Wang Ke squinted comfortably, enjoying everything that originally belonged to the Lord of Yandao.

Like most people who have risen to high positions, Wang Keping did not understand that great power often led to great dangers, and the first thing he did when he gained power was not to observe his men and enemies carefully, but to enjoy his spoils of war and indulge in the joy of victory. However, fortunately for Wang Keping, he occupied a very good position, because he often needed to store a large amount of cash, so the salt road yamen of the past dynasties were built very strongly, and these rebels had a lot of firearms such as three-eyed guns and bird guns, and it was difficult to take him down without three or five times the strength of the attacking side.

"Boss, boss!" There was a rough knock on the door outside, and Wang Ke raised his head impatiently and shouted, "Who, what's the matter!" ”

"It's me!" A familiar voice came from outside the door, a confidant of Wang Keping, who reluctantly jumped up from the bed. Go and open the door: "What's the matter?" ”

"Oh no!" The man's face was a little frightened: "A brother told us that another team of men and horses has entered through the east gate, and it seems that it is the rear team of thieves!" ”

"The back of the thieves?" The impatience on Wang Ke's face disappeared all of a sudden, the reason why he dared to be so arrogant to Li Guo was because after a rough estimate, this group of thieves was only a thousand people, in his opinion, there was no way to use a strong house as a barrier, what could they do, but if the thieves had more than so many troops, then their own approach would be a bit abrupt.

"How many are there?"

"There are four or five hundred infantry troops, and more than a hundred cavalry."

Wang Keping breathed a sigh of relief, this number had not yet exceeded the dangerous boundary. He said to his subordinates, "Go and prepare a generous gift, send it over there, and let the people who pass by be polite." “

"Is this possible? Chieftains! The man asked, "What we said earlier was hard enough!" ”

"It's okay, they have these hundreds more, and it's not so easy to take down us here, after all, we have firearms!" Wang Keping said with a smile: "Let's send someone to give him face, everyone can get by!" ”

"Chief, I'm afraid it's not that simple, the brother listened to the thief. The one who broke the city was just their three masters, the big boss was the famous Cao Cao, and the one who had just entered the city was just a small group, and the brigade was still behind! “

"What. Why didn't you say it earlier? Wang Ke was shocked, Cao Cao's reputation in the land of the Three Jin Dynasty can be said to be known to everyone, after he crossed the river last winter, he successively attacked several county seats. The total number of troops has also increased to more than 10,000 people, and he has been hidden in the position of leader among the thieves. If the thief is telling the truth, his hundreds of people are not enough to stuff their teeth.

"You didn't give me a chance to say it!" The man complained, "What do you think should be done? It is a battle, a defense, and a surrender. It's up to you! ”

Wang Keyong stood there, his face was cloudy, he knew in his heart that if he surrendered, then everything that existed would be in vain, and he might not be able to keep these hundreds of surrendered soldiers, and in the best case, he would just be a small leader of thieves. Thinking of this, he became more and more reluctant in his heart, and said in a low voice: "I'm going to see it with my own eyes!" ”

Wang Ke changed his clothes, secretly went out of the yamen, found a secluded place on the city wall, ran to the east gate, the distance was about half a mile, he stopped, just in time to see a group of people and horses along the official road outside the city to the east gate, about four or five hundred people, look at its messy clothes are the appearance of thieves. His face suddenly turned pale, his knees weakened, and he sat on the ground. The henchmen on the side hurriedly helped him up and asked in a low voice, "Leader, what should we do?" “

"What else can I do?" Wang Keping sighed: "Hey, we will have to act according to other people's eyes in the future!" “

East Gate City Gate.

Li Zicheng was discussing some things with Li Guo, when suddenly one of his subordinates ran up from under the city, and when he was still seven or eight steps away, he shouted loudly: "King Chuang, Tiger Master, that king can use his turtle shell to send someone over to ask for surrender!" ”

"Uncle!" Li Guo was overjoyed when he heard this: "Your method worked, hey, I really don't know how you have so many methods, but I don't have any of them!" ”

"Nephew, I remember your favorite to listen to "Three Kingdoms" when you were a child, right?"

"Yes?" Li Guo was stunned for a moment, and he didn't know why his uncle suddenly turned the topic here.

"Then do you remember how Dong Zhuo used to get all the forbidden troops of the Han Dynasty under his command?" Li Zicheng asked with a smile.

When Li Guo heard this, he suddenly realized. It turned out that at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the general He Jin knew that the eunuchs in the palace had been hated by the people of the world for a long time, and wanted to destroy them all to establish his prestige. However, the five battalions of the Northern Army of the Eastern Han Dynasty (Shesheng, Changshui, Yue Cai, Tun Cai, and Infantry) have been led by eunuchs for more than 100 years, and Shangshutai, which represents the edict of the Son of Heaven, is in the palace and in the hands of eunuchs. He Jin threw a mouse bogeyman and didn't dare to start. So Yuan Shao, who was under his command at that time, had a bad idea, asking him to lure foreign troops into Luoyang to overwhelm the eunuch forces who controlled the northern army, and the most powerful foreign army at that time was Dong Zhuo, who controlled the Liangzhou army, but he didn't want Dong Zhuo to enter Beijing yet, He Jin was tricked into the palace by the eunuchs and killed him. Yuan Shao and others immediately sent troops to attack the palace and killed all the eunuchs. When Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, he was faced with this chaotic situation, he only had more than 3,000 soldiers and horses under his command at that time, in order to deter the heroes, he let his soldiers secretly go out of the city every night, and then re-enter the city with great fanfare the next day, giving everyone a false impression of an endless stream of reinforcements, as a result, the sergeants and soldiers have taken refuge in Dong Zhuo, and soon Dong Zhuo became the overlord who overwhelmed the heroes. Li Zicheng also followed Dong Zhuo's example, let the army go out from the west gate at night, and then came in from the east gate in a big circle, and claimed that he was only Cao Cao's vanguard, and the successor army arrived later, so without firing an arrow, Wang Keyong was frightened to come and surrender.

"Uncle, what are you going to do with that guy?" Li Guo asked.

"Then do you remember who Dong Zhuo died at?" Li Zicheng asked with a smile.

"Isn't it Wang Yun and Lu Bu?" As soon as Li Guo's words came out, he understood, he raised his head, just in time to see Li Zicheng's smiling eyes full of murderous intent.

Chaoyi, iron workshop.

The crankshaft drives a huge bellows, sucking a huge amount of air into the hot pipes, and the heated fresh air pours into the furnace, and the flames immediately turn from dark red to orange. The temperature in the room rose suddenly, Liu Zongmin's forehead oozed a bead of sweat the size of a soybean, even though it was roasted dry, but he didn't seem to feel a little, a pair of eyes stared at the color of the iron in the furnace, suddenly he picked up the iron tongs, took out an iron piece from it, and took it to the anvil, the water-driven forging hammer hit the iron piece forcefully, splashing a ball of sparks, his hands that looked very thick turned the iron piece to be processed with an amazing dexterity, and placed it in the right place, The dark red-red iron is like soft plasticine under the heavy hammer, and it takes two strokes to take on the shape of the desired part. Liu Zongmin then threw it into the bucket next to it mixed with urine and grease, and with a violent snort, the iron quickly turned from dark red to iron blue. Liu Zongmin picked up the second piece of iron from the stove with iron tongs and began to repeat the previous operation...... (To be continued.) )