Two days passed quickly.

What the people in the city feared most did not happen, and in the past two days, the thieves did not launch any attack on Datong, not even the attack of the tentative surname.

Wang Pu didn't dare to be careless, and stayed on the arrow tower at the south gate all night, which had become the de facto commander-in-chief.

Since donating 500,000 taels of silver, Zhu Chuanqi has never appeared in public, let alone mentioning that the morale of the defenders is now boosted on the city tower, and what is even more ridiculous is that the four gates of the palace are still closed in broad daylight, lest Wang Pu come to the door to ask him for silver.

However, Wei Daben ran to the south gate every day, and also requisitioned the old and young women and children in the city to make fires and cook along the streets, and handed tea and water to the city tower, and also organized young people to carry rolling wood and stones to the city tower to assist in defending the city, which can be regarded as fulfilling the duty of the prefect, after all, the survival of Datong is related to his life and death, and he can't do it if he doesn't think about it.

In the past two days, it seems to be calm on the surface, but under the calm surface, there is actually a surging tide, Wang Pu and Li Yan are desperately trying to touch each other's bottom, the two armies' secret agents, the infiltration of meticulous work, and the fighting of the patrol team have reached a white-hot level, especially the small-scale fierce battles of the patrol team, which occur at least a dozen times a day.

Wang Pu and Li Yan are like two masters who meet in a narrow way, they are both afraid of each other's strength and do not act rashly, and they both want to find out the opponent's strength first through any subtle clues revealed by the opponent, so as to know in their hearts, so that they can be targeted when making moves.

After two days of testing and probing, Wang Pu and Li Yan gradually mastered the details of their opponents.

■■■

Datong South Gate, Arrow Tower.

The beard and the scarface are both rough people, they are good at fighting, and their brains are not so good, and Zhen Youcai is not in the city, so Wang Pu can only discuss with Zhao Xin if there is anything.

Zhao Xin is actually a scholar, and once won the show, only because the thieves captured his hometown, he was forced to follow the thief, and became the general in front of the tent of King Gao Yingxiang, and later Gao Yingxiang was captured by Hong Chengchou, Zhao Xin and Tang Sheng took hundreds of thieves to abandon the secret and become the official army of Datong.

Zhao Xin said: "General, I have inquired clearly, the main general of this gang of thieves is called Li Yan, a native of Qixian County, Henan. ”

"It turned out to be Li Yan?" Wang Pu's heart jumped when he heard this, and he said in a deep voice, "It's no wonder. ”

With Wang Pu's understanding of the history of the late Ming Dynasty, Li Yan can be said to be the only general under Li Zicheng's account, and the rest such as Liu Zongmin and Tian Jianxiu can't get rid of the habit of being rogue, and even Li Zicheng himself has no political vision.

Zhao Xindao: "The general knows about Li Yan? ”

"I've heard of it." Wang Pudao, "It is said that this Li Yan is a rare general. ”

"It's no wonder." Zhao Xin nodded and said, "I was still wondering just now, the thieves have always had bad military discipline, and they often rob and kill wherever they hit, but the style of this gang of thieves is completely different, they have strict military discipline, and they have no offense against the people around Datong, which really makes people can't believe it." ”

Wang Pu frowned and asked, "Is there really such a thing?" ”

Zhao Xin said in a deep voice: "It's true. ”

"Awesome, awesome!" Wang Puhuo Ran got up and said in a condensed voice, "What kind of person is this Li Yan?" What kind of strength did he have that could turn a rabble into a disciplined army in such a short period of time? Can you still do nothing to the people? Incredible, incredible! ”

"This Li Yan is nothing remarkable." Wang Pu's voice fell, and Scarface suddenly strode in, and said loudly, "This gang of thieves outside the city is just a rabble, general, you only need a thousand musket teams in your headquarters to wipe out all the more than 10,000 thieves outside the city!" ”

Scar didn't brag when he said this, half of the 5,000 families under Wang Pu were iron-blooded veterans who had experienced the test of life and death, and he killed 2,000 Mongolian cavalry with 400 cavalry, and the bloody rain and bloody battle of Sanbula River and three into three bloody battles survived, and he would put more than 10,000 thieves outside the city in his eyes?

Scarface is confident enough, he only needs a thousand men, and he only needs one charge to bring down this gang of thieves outside the city!

"Shut up!" Wang Pu shouted in a deep voice, "This gang of thieves outside the city is not as easy to deal with as you think. ”

Of course, Wang Pu believes that Scarface can defeat the thieves outside the city, he can overestimate Li Yan, but he will never overestimate the gang of thieves under Li Yan, Li Yan is a general, he can restrain the discipline of the thieves in a short time, but it is impossible to improve the equipment of the thieves in a short time, let alone make the thieves become real elite soldiers overnight.

However, what Wang Pu thinks is different from what Scarface thinks, Scarface only thinks about defeating the gang of thieves outside the city, while Wang Pu thinks about how to use the thieves outside the city to maximize his own interests!

Obviously, Li Yan's thieves could not pose a real threat to Datong.

The soldiers in Datong City are well fed, and it is impossible to fight with the hundreds of thousands of backward equipment of the rabble under Li Yan! Originally, Wang Pu was worried that the thieves would burn and plunder in Datong, which would hurt the people of Datong, and then hurt Wang Pu's foundation in Datong, but now it seems that the military discipline of the thieves is quite strict, and this concern can also be dispelled.

In fact, Wang Pu's strategy had changed now, since Li Yan's army of thieves would not endanger the people outside the city, so why rush to defeat them and drive them away? Just let them stay outside the city, let them become the weight in Wang Pu's hands, and then squeeze some oil and water from Zhu Chuanqi, wouldn't it be better?

There is a saying, this is called raising thieves with self-respect!

However, Scarface didn't know Wang Pu's thoughts, and continued to shout: "General, Jiannu is enough for a cow, right?" How powerful are the Mongols? But weren't they still down by us? I don't believe that this gang of thieves outside the city can be more powerful than Jiannu and the Mongols, general, you just let the lowly rush once! ”

"Shut up." Wang Pu said angrily, "The fight with Jiannu is in Liaodong, and the fight with the Mongols is in the desert, that is all on the enemy's territory, we can fight how we want, we can do what we want, in case we lose, we can pat our ass and leave, but don't forget that this is Datong, this is our territory!" If we lose, can we pat our butts and leave? Can you give up the lady and the red apricot at home? ”

Scarface rolled his eyes and stopped talking.

■■■

Outside the city of Datong, the camp of the righteous army.

Unlike Wang Pu's relaxed mood and calculating the self-respect of raising thieves, Li Yan's mood became heavier and heavier, knowing that the more details about Datong and Wang Pu, the heavier Li Yan's mood became, and in less than two days, Wang Pu had already become a boulder pressing on his heart!

No one has ever been able to bring such a heavy sense of oppression to Li Yan like Wang Pu!

The follow-up army led by Li Hu was less than twenty miles away from Datong, and he could reach Datong City tonight at the latest, but Li Yan's mood was still not relaxed, because the news from the mouths of the people of Datong and the prisoners of the border army made him shocked, and even dumbfounded.

drove 500 miles in three days, and attacked naturalization in one fell swoop;

uprooted the Tumuts and plundered nearly a million heads of cattle and sheep; In the Sea of Death, with less than 400 cavalry, 2,000 Mongolian cavalry were killed; He led the army to a long-distance attack on the Sanbula River, defeated more than 20,000 Korqin cavalry with 3,000 cavalry, and returned with his whole body!

These deeds sound like myths, but they are all associated with one person, this person is Wang Pu, and then think of the Battle of Jining, the three thousand bandits under the Red Lady were wiped out under Wang Pu, Li Yan's heart was like a lead thallium thallium, which made him breathless.

Returning the information from all parties, Li Yan can already conclude that Wang Pu has an army beyond imagination!

This army numbered at least 5,000 men, and they were able to easily uproot the Tumuts and calmly retreat from the thousands of troops of the Korqin people, a well-trained and well-equipped elite division, stronger than any Ming army Li Yan had encountered before.

However, what puzzled Li Yan was that this army did not seem to have the intention of taking the initiative to attack, Li Yan had a very clear understanding of the combat effectiveness of the righteous army, if Wang Pu led this elite army to attack the righteous army, only the 8,000 people outside the city would not be able to resist it no matter what.

Why didn't Wang Pu take the initiative?

What is he waiting for? Did he want to wait for the follow-up hundreds of thousands of rebels to rush to Datong City, and then wipe out all the rebels in one go? This thought flashed in Li Yan's mind, comparing his heart to his heart, Li Yan believed that Wang Pu would never play with the lives of his subordinates.

So what exactly is Wang Pu waiting for?

"Xianggong." The red lady on the side couldn't help but say, "Don't think about it anymore, Wang Pu's dog official is just scared, he doesn't dare to go out of the city to fight." ”

"No, it won't." Li Yan shook his head and said, "Wang Pu only dared to fight Shengjing with only a thousand men, how could such a person be a timid and fearful person?" ”

The red lady pursed her lips and stopped talking.

"There must be an article in this." Li Yan frowned and said, "It's a pity that we can't guess." ”

The red lady suddenly said: "Xianggong, why don't you take a few brothers to sneak into the city by climbing over the city wall at night?" ”

"Nope." Li Yan shook his head and said, "This is too risky. ”

When the two were talking, Jing Maocheng suddenly entered the tent in the dust, clasped his fists and said, "The last general will see the big handsome." ”

"Senior Brother Jing is exempt." Li Yan said with his hand, "Has the terrain of Lei Gong Mountain been explored?" ”

"Figured it out." Jing Maocheng gasped, "The terrain of Lei Gong Mountain is very steep, there are steep cliffs on the north, west and south sides, only there is a road to go up the mountain in the east, and the mountain road is narrow, the team of men and horses can not be launched at all, and the general thinks that it is difficult to attack it." ”

"Where's the water source?" Li Yan asked in a condensed voice, "Is there a water source on the mountain?" ”

Jing Maocheng said: "I couldn't catch the officers and soldiers alive in Lei Gong Mountain, so I didn't find out the details of the situation on the mountain, but the last general lurked in the woods under the mountain for a day and a night, and I didn't see the officers and soldiers on the mountain go down the mountain to draw water, it seems that there should be a spring on the mountain." ”

"Okay." Li Yan nodded and said, "Senior Brother Jing has worked hard, you can go down and rest." ”

"Yes."

Jing Maocheng answered and turned to go.

That night, more than 70,000 rebel troops led by Li Hu also rushed to the outside of Datong City, out of caution, Li Yan did not let the rebel army camp separately, but set up six camps outside the south gate, so that the 80,000 army was close together, so that although there was no iron wall encirclement of Datong, at least it could ensure that it would not be broken by the officials and soldiers.

■■■

The next morning was early in the morning.

When Wang Pu and Li Yan were speculating about what the other party would do next, an unexpected event appeared that neither of them expected.

About 50,000 people of Datong suddenly appeared outside the west gate of Datong, these people helped the old and the young, unkempt, looked hungry and tired, seemed to have not eaten well for several days, slept well, and when they arrived at the city of Datong, they all knelt on the ground, begging the defenders of the city to open the city gate and let them take refuge in the city.

We have to start from the beginning.

At the beginning, on behalf of Wang Zhu Chuanqi, Zhang Zi'an instructed Zhang Zi'an to rob the grain of the people of Datong, and Zhang Zi'an also passed the order to the guards, institutes and forts in the north of the city and the surrounding camps, and later Wang Pu came forward to prevent the border troops of the north camp of the city from robbing the people, but the border troops of the surrounding guards, offices and forts still took the opportunity to rob the people of many nearby villages and towns.

These border troops did not have the direct restraint of Wang Pu, and the military discipline was corrupt, they not only robbed, but also burned all the way to annihilate silver, and then fled into the left guard of Datong with the looted booty, and more than 50,000 people who were robbed along the way had no food and no houses, so they had to come to Datong to seek refuge.

……

(To be continued)