Datong, the main hall of the royal compound.

Wang Pu and Zhen Youcai sang and harmonized, and they were bargaining with Wei Daben, the prefect of Datong.

"Lord Wei." Wang Pu said pretendedly, "Let this horse come forward to temporarily lead the border army of Datong Town, I'm afraid it's not in line with the regulations of the imperial court, right?" Besides, will the border soldiers in Datong Town be convinced? After all, Ben Horse is now the commander of Jingying, and he is no longer the chief soldier of Datong Town. ”

"Ouch, Master Pony." Wei Daben said bitterly, "It's time to burn your eyebrows, who cares about any regulations and irregularities?" Besides, this is not a violation of the regulations, but it is just a matter of urgency, not to mention that with your prestige, who would dare to disobey the border soldiers of Datong Town? ”

"Lord Wei." Zhen Youcai said in a dark voice, "The border army of Datong Town is not easy to bring. ”

Of course, Wei Daben could hear the meaning of Zhen Youcai's words, but he pretended to be stupid and said, "What does Mr. Zhen mean by this?" ”

Zhen Youcai asked for the surname to make his words clear, and said shamelessly: "Since it's going to be a war, the soldiers need to eat, right?" Horses need forage, right? There are 18,000 soldiers of the Multilateral Army and tens of thousands of war horses in Datong Town, Lord Wei, you can do the math, how much silver will you get in a day? And the firearms battalion needs silver to buy ammunition, right? If the battle is won, the soldiers will be rewarded with silver, right? Do you still have to pay a pension for the fallen soldiers? As far as I know, there are only a few thousand stones left in the military rations of Datong Town, and the salary of the treasury is only tens of thousands of taels. ”

Wei Daben stopped talking, because what Zhen Youcai said was the truth.

It is true that there are only a few thousand stones left in the military rations of Datong Town, and the salary and silver of the Datong Domain Treasury are only more than 10,000 taels. Acting Wang and Zhang Zi'an did have the meaning that Zhen Youcai said, and carried Wang Pu out to temporarily lead the general army of Datong, not only to ask Wang Pu to lead the troops, but also to borrow the food and silver of the Wang family to support this Datong defense battle.

In other words, the wishful thinking of the acting king and Zhang Zi'an is to rely on the people of the Wang family, use the food of the Wang family, and spend the money of the Wang family to fight this battle of Datong for them.

After holding it for a long time, Wei Daben said coldly: "Master Horse, there is a sentence that the lower officials don't know whether to say it or not?" ”

Wang Pu said: "Lord Wei, please speak." ”

Wei Daben said: "Defending Datong is not only the business of the official, but also the business of all the people and businessmen of Datong Mansion. ”

Zhen Youcai retorted: "Master Ma and the Wang family didn't say anything about the grain or the money, but Lord Wei can't spread all the food and salary on the head of the Wang family, right?" If you just said, wouldn't defending Datong become a family affair for the Wang family? I would like to ask Lord Wei below, is this Datong Mansion from the imperial court or from the Wang family? ”

Wei Daben frowned and said, "Of course it's from the imperial court." ”

"That's a good point." Zhen Youcai applauded and said, "Since Datong is the Datong of the imperial court, and there is indeed not enough food and salary in the treasury of Datong Domain, then the people of the entire Datong Mansion and the merchants and gentry should share the food and salary needed for the defense of Datong, Lord Wei, do you say this is the reason?" ”

Wei Daben had no way to refute, and said helplessly: "It's such a reason." ”

Wang Pu Huoran got up and said in a stiff tone: "Please tell the acting king and Gonggong Zhang that I, Wang Pu, can come forward to temporarily lead the general army of Datong Town, and our Wang family can also provide food and pay to support the defense of Datong, but our Wang family will only pay the share that should be paid, and the excess share will not be borne by all!" ”

After that, Wang Pu ignored Wei Daben anymore, turned to the screen and left.

Wei Daben opened his mouth, he wanted to say something, but he didn't know what to say when it came to the end, Zhen Youcai on the side said sadly: "Lord Wei, Master Ma can wait, the soldiers of the border army can wait, and the people of Datong can wait, but the army of thieves will not wait." ”

Wei Daben gasped, hurriedly said goodbye to Zhen Youcai and left.

When Wei Daben walked away, Zhen Youcai suddenly said behind the screen: "General, do you say that the iron rooster of the acting king and the old gelding of Zhang Zi'an will pay for the grain?" ”

Wang Pu's figure turned out from behind the screen again, and said in a deep voice: "Unless they don't want their net worth and surname, otherwise they can only pay for food." ”

Zhen Youcai said again: "What if they refuse to come out? ”

Wang Pu sneered: "Then wait for the army of thieves to come to the city in three days, and see if they can get out by then?" ”

Zhen Youcai said in a low voice: "General, if you really wait until the thief army comes to the city before you take over the power of Datong's army, is it too late?" After all, at that time, it would be too late to transfer the border troops scattered in various strongholds back to Datong, and there were more than 100,000 people outside the city, and they could no longer move into the city. ”

"Wei Daben and Zhang Zi'an are not fools, they should know the stakes...... Wang Pu thought about it, and still said, "But just in case, you still have to find a way to tell these two guys the news, let Zhang Zi'an immediately gather the border army of Datong Town, and then let Wei Daben immediately move the people outside the city into the city." ”

"Yes." Zhen Youcai replied respectfully, "Let's arrange it." ”

■■■

As Wang Pu said, Zhang Zi'an and Wei Daben are both smart people, and they both know the stakes involved, but the measures they took greatly exceeded Wang Pu's expectations!

There would be no problem in gathering the border troops from the military strongholds around Datong into Datong, but the question of how to deal with the people of Datong was completely different from what Wang Pu and the others thought.

Wang Pu's idea was to move as many people as possible from Datong Province into the city within three days, along with their livestock and grain stocks, so that there would be no backup for the thieves.

However, Wei Daben and Zhang Zi'an's countermeasures were not like this, they actually ordered the border troops who were assembling in Datong to rob the people of Datong Mansion, and at the same time sent the army of the camp north of the city to plunder the livestock and grain of the nearby people, it is obvious that Wang Pu overestimated the personality of Wei Daben and Zhang Zi'an, they did not regard the people of Datong Mansion as the people of Datong Mansion at all, in their eyes, the people of Datong Mansion are a group of cattle and sheep, a group of slaves!

Of course, from a purely military point of view, Wei Daben and Zhang Zi'an's strategy is more vicious and effective than Wang Pu's! Sending troops to loot is obviously faster than sending troops to protect the people into Datong, and the grain obtained from the robbery can be used as military food, and at the same time, the food pressure in Datong City will be much smaller.

More importantly, leaving hundreds of thousands of hungry people waiting to be fed to the thieves will inevitably exacerbate the lack of food rations for the thieves and force them to flee to other state capitals as soon as possible.

This trick is not ruthless, but it is tantamount to a suicide act of killing chickens and eggs!

Wang Pu also pointed to making Datong Mansion his base, and of course he couldn't let them come around.

When Wang Pu knew the news, it was already the afternoon of the same day, and the border soldiers of the northern camp of the city had already received Zhang Zi'an's military order, and were ready to send forty hundred-man teams to rob separately, and the person in charge of the operation was Zhao Liujin, the deputy general of Datong Town, and Zhao Liujin was standing proudly on the parade platform to give a lecture to the four thousand soldiers who were about to go on the expedition.

The robbery of civilians by officials and soldiers is nothing new, it has been happening for several years.

Because the imperial court could not pay food, the officials and soldiers could only rob the people, but most of these things happened in Shaanxi, Henan and Huguang provinces, but there were very few in Shanxi, especially Datong Mansion did not happen, but it did not happen before does not mean that it will not happen in the future, at least Zhao Liujin thought that robbing the people of Datong was a matter of course.

Zhao Liujin's logic is very simple, the thieves are about to be killed, Lao Tzu is going to fight for the people of Datong Mansion with his head, take a little food from you, and rob you of a few pigs to escape?

"Brethren." Zhao Liujin took a breath and yelled, "You all listen to Lao Tzu, this time we are not robbing, we are acting on orders, this operation must be thorough, we must not leave a grain of grain for the thieves, starve to death those thieves who killed a thousand knives, do you hear clearly?" ”

"Hear me."

The soldiers of the border army under the parade platform responded violently, and one by one they seemed to be a little impatient.

Most of these border soldiers are rough people who can't read a single word, what kind of consciousness can they have? Even Wei Daben, who was full of poetry and books, abandoned the sage idea of "the people are the most important, the society is secondary, and the monarch is light", and raised a bloody butcher's knife to the innocent people of Datong Mansion, can you still expect these big-headed soldiers to grow a bodhisattva's heart?

Zhao Liujin waved his hand and shouted: "Let's go!" ”

"Wait!"

When the soldiers looked back in a hurry, they saw that Wang Pu was already standing on the edge of the school field surrounded by dozens of riders, and he was looking at Zhao Liujin on the parade platform with cold eyes, and the officers and men of the three armies were in an uproar.

Zhao Liujin gasped, hurriedly trotted down from the parade platform, ran in front of Wang Puma's head, nodded and said, "General, why did you come to the camp?" ”

Wang Pu said coldly: "If General Ben doesn't come, I'm afraid your kid will lose his life!" ”

Zhao Liujin was stunned and said, "What does the general mean by this?" ”

"Do you know what the military order you gave just now means?" Zhen Youcai, who was beside Wang Pu, shouted loudly, "Blatantly leading troops to rob the people of the Ming Dynasty is a rebellion!" Vice General Zhao, do you want to take the border soldiers of Datong Town to rebel against the Ming Dynasty and the rebellion of the Long Live Lord? ”

"Huh?" Zhao Liujin lost his voice and said, "Where did Mr. Zhen start with this?" Is lowly just acting on orders? ”

Wang Pudao: "Since you are acting on orders, then there is nothing for you to do now, and General Ben will take over the military power of Datong from now on!" ”

"Uh......" Zhao Liujin was stunned for a moment, quickly straightened his chest and replied, "Yes!" ”

Zhang Zi'an and Wei Daben wanted to ask Wang Pu to take over the military power of Datong, Zhao Liujin knew about it, and he thought that Wang Pu had taken over the military power of Datong Town, so there was really nothing to do with him Zhao Liujin here, and everything was decided by Wang Pu.

Wang Pu turned over his horse, hurriedly boarded the parade platform, the eyes of the four thousand border soldiers gathered on Wang Pu, anyway, Wang Pu had been the general soldier of Datong for three years, and not long ago used troops against Mongolia, but let these big-headed soldiers see Wang Pu's courage and ability, although they are not Wang Pu's soldiers, but their admiration for Wang Pu has reached the point of worship.

Wang Pu took a breath and asked sharply, "Should the people of Datong rob it?" ”

"Yes!"

The heartless and heartless big-headed soldier of No. 4,000 suddenly agreed.

Wang Pu was furious, he took out his waist knife and threw it heavily on the parade platform, only to hear a sound, the sharp blade was deeply rooted in the thick wooden board, only the handle inlaid with gold and gems was swaying from side to side, shining under the light of the slanting sun, the soldiers of the three armies in the audience held their breath for a moment, and everyone felt the anger that erupted from Wang Pu's body!

"Fart!" Wang Pu scolded angrily, "Do you know who the people are? Among them are your father, your mother, and your brothers and sisters. Today you are here to rob the people of Datong, and tomorrow other officers and soldiers will rob your relatives in your hometown! In this world, how can there be a reason for a son to rob Lao Tzu? If you rob and kill your own family, are you still human? You are brutes, not even beasts! ”

The soldiers of the 4,000 border army all lowered their heads one by one, if Wang Pu reasoned with these big-headed soldiers, he might be wasting his tongue on the cow playing the piano, but after this foul language of scolding and training, these big-headed soldiers immediately understood, and they quickly understood a truth, the cubs are all raised by their parents, how can there be a reason for the cubs to rob their parents in this world?

"It's all for General Ben." Wang Pu took a long breath, tried his best to suppress the anger in his chest, and shouted, "This operation must continue, but not for you to rob, but for you to help and protect the people, and help them move their homes into the city for refuge. ”

……

(To be continued)