This shout parted at the intersection in front of them, some to the south, some to the north, and some to the east, so that there were paging of the same content in several streets of the city. Xu Hecheng www.biquge.info face became gloomy, he knew in his heart that it would be impossible to get out of the city without a fight, he lowered his voice and ordered: "Everyone put on armor, light the fire rope, spread the felt carpet on the carriage where the prince is sitting, and prepare to face the battle!" ”

Zhu Yujian and the princess in the carriage could hear it clearly, Zhu Yujian could barely maintain her composure, and the princess was already paralyzed with fright, grabbed her husband's palm, and sobbed incessantly. At this moment, there was a sudden muffled sound on the top of the carriage, as if something had fallen on the carriage, and the windows on both sides went dark. Zhu Yujian was taken aback: "What's wrong?" What's going on? ”

Xu Wanqian was better than Zhu Yujian and his wife, and hurriedly comforted: "Don't panic, princess, this is a felt blanket, which is used to prevent arrows." My brother is afraid that you two will be injured by stray arrows, so he blocked the windows on both sides with a felt blanket, and the outside is covered with cowhides, even if it is a rocket! ”

"I see!" Hearing Xu Wancheng's explanation, Zhu Yujian's face improved a little, and he smiled forcefully: "Lord Xu really deserves to be from the military department, and he is familiar with military affairs!"

Xu Wanqian hurriedly comforted: "Rest assured, these sergeants are the elite of a hundred battles under the command of General Liu, even if they don't take it seriously, what are the thieves!" ”

"Seriously!" Zhu Yujian and the princess's eyes lit up, counting from the battle of Salhu, the Ming Dynasty has been fighting with Donglu for more than ten years, whether it is the world-famous Qin Liangyu's white pole soldiers, Yunnan wolf soldiers, or the nine-sided powerhouse, they all fought a battle and lost a battle, and it was not until last year's battle with Lingle that they got back a game. In the eyes of the people at that time, Dongyu was tantamount to a devil with a green face and fangs, eating human flesh raw; And the elite soldiers under Liu Cheng's command are nothing less than heavenly soldiers and generals, and with such a strong force to protect themselves, it is naturally very safe. Even the princess forgot to cry and was about to say something soft. Suddenly I heard a row of guns outside, like a thunderbolt hitting the head, even the thick felt blanket couldn't stop it, and I was suddenly scared to a sore numbness between my legs, and suddenly there was a warmth at the base of my legs, and I was already incontinent.

There was already a white smoke outside the carriage, and the burning of black powder emitted a unique irritating gas that made people unable to open their eyes, but these shooters were all veterans, some of whom had followed Liu Cheng when they were in Yanzhou, Shaanxi, and most of them had fought more than ten times, and some of them had fought three or four times. They skillfully took a step back, gave up the position to the other half of the gunmen who had not yet fired, stepped back and skillfully cleaned the chamber with a pusher, and then took out the pre-packed cartridge wrapped in a cardboard shell from the cowhide belt, and then used their teeth to open the mouth of the cartridge sealed with butter, put the lead bullet in their mouth, and then poured the gunpowder into the muzzle, after ramming it with the push rod, put the lead bullet into the muzzle, and then poured the remaining bit of gunpowder into the powder pool to make the ignition powder, and finally pulled the serpentine rod holding the fire rope back to its original position, ready to shoot.

The night wind has blown away some of the smoke, Xu Hecheng can see with the help of the firelight that from here to the small square at the front intersection are lying on the corpses of the peasant army, several war horses that have lost their owners are running around in panic, several Mongolian cavalry jumped off their horses, one by one to search the corpses on the ground, looking for the trophies, if they encounter a knife in the throat that is not out of breath, from time to time there is a short scream. Just a few minutes earlier, Xu Hecheng had witnessed an ingenious ambush, a tactic that had been used by nomads for thousands of years – knights on fast horses rushed in front of the enemy, shot a few of them, then turned around and ran away, chased by enraged enemies, who were waiting for them by hordes of horsemen and rain of arrows. Of course, under Liu Cheng, this tactic was upgraded, with birds, cannons, shotguns, and rockets replacing the arrows fired by compound bows. This time the old method worked again, the attacked peasant army angrily pursued, but in the narrow streets was met by a dense salvo of birds, and then Temur led the cavalry to counterattack, and the unprepared peasant army was crushed, and Temur killed nearly a hundred enemies at a small cost.

"Lord Xu, the road leading to the south gate has been cleared, and the city gate has been under control!" Temur's Chinese was still a little stammering, and the stout Mongol warrior had two scars on his face, which looked a little scary in the firelight, and he wiped his scimitar against the edge of the saddle: "Please get out of the city quickly, I will lead the cavalry to break the queen for you!" ”

"Good!" Xu Hecheng nodded happily: "After I leave the city, you will set fire to the south gate, so as not to catch up with the thieves!" ”

"Yes, sir!"

North Gate.

Li Zicheng and Cao Cao did not immediately attack the Tang Wangfu after breaking through the North Gate, they took the North Gate as their own command after they had rich combat experience, and sent troops to control the rest of the city gates and the prefect's mansion and granary, while waiting for the dawn, after all, it is extremely difficult to command the army at night in a city with complex terrain, anyway, the North Gate is already in their own hands, and there is no need to take any more risks.

On the city tower, Cao Cao sat on a Taishi chair that he didn't know where to get, took the wine glass from the concubine on the side, and said with a smile: "Come, go and pour a glass for our brother Li, and take down a big city like Nanyang, our brothers will have a good time today!" ”

Li Zicheng's brows furrowed slightly, he didn't like Cao Cao's style very much, but he didn't say anything, but took the wine glass and took a sip: "Cao Shuai, we haven't taken Nanyang City yet, Hong Hengjiu (Hong Chengchou) doesn't know where it is now, I'm afraid it's not the time to be happy!" ”

"Huh!" Cao Cao laughed, he drank all the wine in the cup, and sent it to the concubine: "Fill it for Lao Tzu!" Self-contained, self-contained, you are still the same old as before, thoughtful, thinking a lot, and you are the material for doing big things. But do you think about it, why did we rise up and rebel? Isn't it that you can't survive a hard life without eating, drinking? Since we have raised the flag, then we will drink good wine, eat meat, and sleep if we have good women, otherwise wouldn't this life be in vain? You are good, you have a sad face every day, and you are an old monk in the temple with a rosary around your neck! ”

"Huh!" Li Zicheng laughed twice: "What Cao Shuai said is that there are tens of thousands of brothers under Zicheng's command, and the officials and troops are strong, so I have to think of a way out for them, right?" ”

"A way out? What's there to think about here? Cao Cao smiled: "If they have a way out, they will follow you to rebel?" Don't talk about them, if the Son of Heaven hadn't cut the post station, I'm afraid you would still be sleeping in the open every day to deliver documents to the imperial court, and you would still pull the flag and rebel? In this world, people kill people and set fire to gold belts, build bridges and pave roads, and no one buries them. As long as we have a knife in our hands, we are not afraid of no food, no drink, no women, the court can't beat us in the end, we have to recruit An, even if we lose our heads one day, Lao Tzu has eaten what he should eat, drunk what he should drink, seen what he should have seen, played and played, and he has not lived this life in vain! ”

In the face of Cao Cao's rhetoric, Li Zicheng was silent for a while, and finally said in a deep voice: "Cao Shuai, what you said is right, if Chongzhen hadn't abolished the post station, I'm afraid that I would still be running for the imperial court to deliver letters." Indeed, the way of this world is that the wicked laugh and the good cry. But I don't think this is how the world should be. ”

"What should that look like?" Cao Cao asked.

"It should be reversed, the good people live a good life, and the wicked don't end well!"

"Hahahaha!" Cao Cao listened to Li Zicheng's words, and suddenly laughed: "Zicheng, Zicheng, what are you talking about, the wicked don't end well?" Aren't we wicked? Do you think we're all going to end well? Are you crazy? ”

Li Zicheng opened his mouth, and the words stopped when he reached his mouth, and then there was a shout from the city, which attracted the attention of the two people, only to see Zhang Xianzhong roaring with a team of people, he held two heads in his hands, and shouted loudly to the city: "King Chuang, Cao Shuai, Li Xianfeng and Wang Shaoyu, the two dog thieves, let me kill them, the head is here, this Nanyang City is ours!" ”

"Okay, good, take the first credit for winning the eight kings of Nanyang City!" Cao Cao smiled, and immediately whispered to Li Zicheng: "Zicheng, it seems that this Nanyang City is going to be divided into Zhang Xianzhong!" ”

"That's as it should be!" Li Zicheng nodded: "The most important thing at the moment is to catch King Tang, as long as you kill him, Hong Chengchou will be unlucky even if he doesn't lose his position!" ”

Cao Cao didn't care so much about arresting the Tang King: "What if Hong Chengchou loses his office?" Isn't Chongzhen going to send a new official yet? It's still important to quickly check the property in the palace! ”

"Cao Shuai, there are not many shrewd and capable officials in the imperial court like Hong Chengchou, and the newcomers may not be as capable as him, which is of great benefit to you and me!"

"Huh!" Cao Cao shook his head noncommittally: "Zicheng, there is wine today and drunk today, why do you want to do so much?" By the way, you let me pick a few of the palace maids in the Tang Palace, and I will exchange them with you with a good horse! ”

"If Cao Shuai likes it, he can pick it himself, and the horse doesn't have to!" Li Zicheng smiled, in his opinion, Cao Cao is a good ally, cunning and righteous, powerful, and measured, although his ambitions are different, but if he has a good relationship, it will be beneficial to both parties.

"Well, I owe you a favor" Cao Cao was surprised and delighted, and said with a smile: "I have also heard that this Tang King is a virtuous king, but I want to see where this virtuous king 'Xian' is?" ”

"King Xian?" Li Zicheng sneered: "They are all lying on the people to eat meat and drink blood, virtuous fart!" ”

"Huh!" Cao Cao laughed dryly, did not continue Li Zicheng's topic, but smiled at Zhang Xianzhong who came up from the horse road: "Brother Zhang, Brother Zhang, everyone can enter this Nanyang City thanks to you, come, come, let the old brother pour you a glass of wine to quench your thirst!" ”

Zhang Xianzhong threw the two heads in his hand to the ground, took the wine glass and drank it all, pointed to the two heads on the ground and said with a smile: "If you want to say that we can enter the city, the first person to thank should be these two on the ground!" ”

Cao Cao was stunned for a moment and asked, "Li Xianfeng and Wang Shaoyu, where does this start?" ”

"Cao Shuai, you don't know, the guards of Nanyang originally owed almost a year's salary, and after this Li Zhifu learned that our army was coming, he ran to the Tang Wangfu, saying that the treasury was empty, and asked the Tang King to pay the money and grain to pay the officers and soldiers who guarded the city. The king of Tang gave 10,000 taels of silver, but the prefect immediately took half of it and stuffed it into his pocket, and only gave 5,000 taels to Wang Shaoyu, and the deputy general of the king was not to be outdone, and swallowed the remaining 5,000 taels, as a result, the king of Tang gave 10,000 taels, and the 3,000 officers and soldiers who defended the city did not get a tael of silver. If it weren't for these two, could I provoke a mutiny and open the city gates? ”

"I see, if you want to say that, we really have to thank these two adults!" Cao Cao stroked his beard and asked Li Zicheng on the side, "Zicheng, how do you repay these two adults?" ”

"Humph!" Li Zicheng snorted coldly and said: "In my opinion, find someone who can write articles, write down the reasons for these two things clearly, hang them next to the city gate with the head, and let everyone who passes by see what these old men are!" ”

"Okay, this is a good method!" Zhang Xianzhong gave a thumbs up: "Those old men all say that we are thieves, in my opinion, we are just thieves, and we only robbed dozens of stones of grain and more than a dozen livestock with knives and guns; They are the big thieves, they just say a few words, write a few words with their pens, and steal tens of thousands of taels of silver into their pockets. ”

Cao Cao was not too interested in Li Zicheng's proposal, compared to Li and Zhang, although he had more troops, his ambitions were much simpler, and he had no ambition to be alone, just to live happily one day at a time. Therefore, although he didn't quite understand, he instinctively felt the danger of the behavior that Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were preparing to do to disrupt the feudal social order. He hesitated for a moment and said, "There's no need, these two are already dead anyway, and they haven't hurt us anything, so why bother?" ”

Zhang Xianzhong said with a smile: "Cao Shuai, you can't say that, as the saying goes, the name is right, and Song Jiang in the Water Margin has to set up a banner for the heavens on Liangshan, and what we are doing now is to build a banner." These dog officials have done evil things, the emperor doesn't care, let's take care of the emperor Lao'er, let the people of the world see who is doing the right thing for heaven! ”

Cao Cao said that Zhang Xianzhong couldn't say anything, his eyes turned to Li Zicheng, and found that although the other party didn't speak, his attitude was obviously in favor of Zhang Xianzhong, so he had to cough lowly: "Since you both agree, then do it, by the way, in order to avoid the conflict between the three brothers, let's divide this Nanyang City, and divide it from these two intersecting roads, the three of us occupy the east, west, and south respectively, and the remaining north piece and the Tang Wangfu and the official warehouse The three of us grabbed lots, but half of the gold and silver in the Tang Wangfu are supplemented, What do you guys think? ”

Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng glanced at each other, and both felt that Cao Cao's conditions were quite fair, so they both nodded. Seeing this, Cao Cao pulled out three weeds from the female wall battlement, and agreed that the longest one would represent the Tang Palace, the second longest one would represent the treasury of the official mansion, and the shortest one would represent the north, and then hold one end of the weeds and let Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng draw them, and finally Zhang Xianzhong drew the Tang Palace, Li Zicheng drew the north, and the rest of the treasury belonged to Cao Cao. (To be continued.) )