The Lujiang reinforcements led by Liu Kai left Hefei City and took a turn, and walked less than sixty miles out of the city like a turtle, and immediately fled back to Hefei City like a rabbit to defend the closed door, and the gentleman's army that played the vanguard sent the news back to Tao Ying, and Deputy Director Tao, who was leading the main force of Xuzhou to march south, was suddenly dumbfounded - the main force of Xuzhou came to seek a decisive battle with the Lujiang reinforcements of Xiao Yuan Sangong, and now the Lujiang reinforcements have fled back to Hefei City, how can the main force of Xuzhou fight? You can't storm Hefei Jiancheng to fight a time-consuming and labor-intensive battle, right?

In desperation, in order not to let the soldiers waste their physical strength in vain, Tao Ying could only let the main force of Xuzhou set up camp fifty miles north of Hefei, stop and rest, and ordered the Junzi army not to attack Hefei, and the soldiers retreated twenty miles to set up camp, and always reconnoitred the enemy's movements in Hefei City, and at the same time, the cautious and suspicious Tao Ying Shao had to interrogate the prisoners in person, and understand the reason for Liu Kai's sudden withdrawal from the army to them face to face.

The capture of Yuan Shujun's army that the main force of Xuzhou was able to catch, of course, was the fish that slipped through the net of Zheng Bao's team who was killed by the Junzi army, but unfortunately these small fish and shrimp didn't even know why the main force of Liu Kai's army abandoned them, let alone explain to Tao Ying the reason why Liu Kai suddenly withdrew to Hefei City. Therefore, after Tao Ying's interrogation, he only learned that these prisoners were from the team of Sima Zheng Bao of the Lujiang Point Army, and when Liu Kai led the main force to retreat, he did not order Zheng Bao's forward team to retreat, and no one knew the real reason for Liu Kai's sudden retreat.

"Could it be that Liu Kai was frightened by our army? Through the scout scout, the main force of our army was detected in the news of the south, and he didn't dare to go head-to-head with the main force of our army, so he quickly slipped away? ”

This is the preliminary conclusion reached by Deputy Director Tao, but this cannot be blamed on Deputy Director Tao's arrogance, the key is that in Deputy Director Tao's memory, there is really no such person as Liu Kai, so naturally Liu Kai will not be regarded as a dangerous opponent to be vigilant and vigilant. And almost all of Tao Ying's accomplices and lackeys also think so, especially Hou Cheng, who recently joined the Xuzhou army, and other former generals of the Lu Bu army, who openly shouted, "Liu Kaipifu must be afraid, Yuan Shupifu's Jiujiang Army and Liyang Army have been defeated by us, and the Lujiang Army can't even compare with the Liyang Army, so do you still have the courage to confront the main force of our Xuzhou army head-on?" ”

The Lujiang reinforcements led by Liu Kai are definitely not the opponent of the main force of Xuzhou, which Tao Ying believes, but the main force of the Lujiang army withdrew to Hefei City, which makes Tao Ying extremely difficult, and he wants to attack Hefei City, for fear that it will take time to say that the rear will change, and if he does not fight Hefei City, he will directly withdraw to Quyang, so the tactics of Yuan Shu's various reinforcements will be bankrupt. Under the dilemma, Deputy Director Tao, who has always been resourceful, inevitably feels a little at a loss.

Of course, as the so-called good people don't live long, bad guys live for thousands of years, and the sky doesn't open their eyes, just when Deputy Director Tao was making a difficult decision, more than ten Yuan Shujun soldiers came outside the camp, took the initiative to hand over their weapons to the Xuzhou army, and begged Tao Ying to meet with him and said that there was a confidential report, Tao Ying knew that there was a difference and immediately received him, only to know that the soldiers who surrendered were all the family members of Zheng Bao, a wealthy family in Lujiang, and Zheng Bao's housekeeper was headed by Zheng Jie, the eldest son of Zheng Bao. And Zheng Jie's purpose in asking to see Tao Ying was nothing else, it was to secretly ask for the surrender of Zheng Bao and Deng Dang, the generals of Lujiang, and at the same time explain that Zheng Bao and Deng Dang were willing to make internal responses and assist the Xuzhou army to take Hefei City.

How suspicious our Deputy Director Tao is, there is no need to be wordy here, in short, after listening to Zheng Bao's henchman Zheng Jie's intentions, Deputy Director Tao's first reaction was not to be ecstatic, but to be careful, staring at Zheng Jie's face and asking: "Your lord Zheng Bao and I don't know each other, let alone have no kindness and righteousness, why are you willing to take this risk for me?" Acting as an internal response? ”

Zheng Jie was a little flustered by Deputy Director Tao's sharp gaze, and replied tremblingly: "I don't know, my lord Zheng Gong was originally a wealthy family in Lujiang, because he was dissatisfied with Yuan Shu's thieves and thieves, and intended to lead the old and young of his clan to move to Jiangnan, but the news leaked, Lujiang Taishou Liu Xun personally led the army to surround my lord's manor, and wanted to arrest my lord and take him to prison, and also disbanded the Zheng family's private soldiers. My lord has no treacherous intentions, who would have thought that Liu Xun was uneasy and kind, and wanted to get rid of my lord by the hand of the king......"

After roughly introducing Zheng Bao's background and origin, Zheng Jie gave a detailed introduction to Liu Kai's murder with a knife, explaining that Zheng Bao was forced to vote in a desperate situation, and finally kowtowed and said: "Envoy, what the grass people said is true, if you don't believe it, you can ask the captives captured by your army, the Lujiang team that fought with your army before are all the private soldiers of my lord Zheng Baogong's family, and we all know the causes and consequences of my lord Zheng Gong being forced to submit to Liu Xun Pifu, so please carefully verify, if the villain said half a lie, I am willing to accept the punishment of car splitting. ”

Seeing that Zheng Jie's expression was not deceitful except for being nervous, and hearing that Zheng Jie dared to boast about such a haikou, Tao Ying already believed it in his heart, but out of suspicious habits, Tao Ying couldn't help but ask again, "Are they all Zheng Bao's original private soldiers?" After Liu Xun incorporated your team, didn't he reorganize it? Regrouping after breakup? ”

"Returning to the envoy, no." Zheng Jie replied honestly: "My lord Zheng Baogong accepted Liu Xun's official position, and the precondition was that he was not allowed to reorganize and reorganize the team under his command, Liu Xunpifu refused to agree at first, thanks to Mr. Liu Ye's strong mediation, persuaded Liu Xunpifu to accept this condition. At that time, Mr. Liu Ye was in front of the two armies to mediate and mediate in person, and everyone in my lord's private army saw this with their own eyes, so that you could also ask other people. ”

"It seems to be true." Tao Ying muttered in his heart, and asked curiously: "Mr. Liu Ye (Yin Tongye)?" What kind of person is this Mr. Liu Ye, who is so powerful that he can persuade Liu Xun to accept such conditions? ”

"Returning to the envoy, this Mr. Liu Ye is not an ordinary person." Zheng Jie replied with some pride: "Mr. Liu Ye is the royal family after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty!" Poetry and songs, astronomy and geography, medicine and astrology, all of them are all clear, all of them are fine, they are famous in the Huainan area, their prestige is outstanding, and they have to shake three times when they stomp on the Lujiang River! Mr. Liu Ye came forward to persuade and mediate, Liu Xun did not dare not give him face, and hired Mr. Liu Ye as the Cheng of Lujiang County. ”

"So remarkable? Liu Ye? How come I've never heard of it? Tao Ying was a little strange, but considering that the old Liu family had a lot of work to create people, it was not surprising that there were some outstanding talents in the descendants that he had never heard of, so Tao Ying quickly put this issue aside for the time being. After carefully thinking for a while, Tao Ying instructed Zheng Jie: "You go down to rest first, and then I will give you an answer after a little discussion with the generals." Come on, invite this General Zheng Jie to rest, and entertain him with good wine and food. ”

Seeing Tao Ying's friendly attitude, Zheng Jie, who was very nervous, was of course overjoyed, and hurriedly kowtowed to Tao Ying to say goodbye, and followed the guards to the back tent to rest without mentioning it. As soon as Zheng Jie left, Tao Ying immediately sent the army commander Bo Chen Ying to interrogate the prisoners, and interrogated the prisoners of war of Yuan Shujun who had been captured before separately to verify whether Zheng Jie's words were false, and the results were also natural, and the confessions of all the prisoners proved that Zheng Jie did not say half a lie. After confirming that what Zheng Jie said was true, Tao Ying no longer hesitated, and immediately ordered the whole army to continue to move south to Hefei City, and asked Zheng Jie to lead more than a dozen defeated soldiers to return to Hefei City overnight to contact Zheng Bao, expressing his willingness to accept Zheng Bao's surrender, and after breaking through Hefei City, he would definitely reward Zheng Baoyunyun.

is also out of prudence, when handing over the letter to Zheng Jie, Tao Ying explained uneasily, "Go back and tell General Zheng Bao that you must be cautious in your actions, and you must not leak the news and bring disaster to yourself!" Even if it is Mr. Liu Ye, who is good friends with your family master, you must not let him know about this in advance, and you must be careful that people's hearts are separated from their stomachs. But don't hurt Mr. Liu Ye, since Mr. Liu Ye is a famous man in Huainan, if he can surrender to our army after the city is broken, it will also be a blessing for our army. Zheng Jie respectfully agreed, carefully hid Tao Ying's secret letter close to him, and led more than a dozen of Zheng Bao's absolute henchmen to leave overnight.

Sent away Zheng Jie this group of leading the party, the next morning, the main force of Xuzhou set off to continue south, arrived at the suburbs of Hefei around the time of Shen in the afternoon, at the same time Tao Ji also led the gentleman's army to come to the round with Tao Ying, and also reported that Zheng Jie and his party had successfully returned to Hefei City in the good news, Tao Ying was even more happy to hear it, and quickly ordered the army to set up a large camp ten miles outside the north gate of Hefei, while preparing siege equipment, while patiently waiting for Zheng Bao's reply.

When the main force of Xuzhou began to prepare to attack Hefei City, Lu Su, who stayed in Quyang, suddenly sent a fast horse to send an urgent letter, saying that Uncle Liu Huang, the sworn enemy of the Xuzhou army, had made a comeback, organized more than 20,000 rabbles in Runan, and crossed the river from the Xia Cai area to the south, but Yuan Shujun did not stop it at all, and also sent a large number of grain, grass and ordnance to Uncle Liu, which seemed to have a tendency to join forces. And this letter has just been read, and Lu Suxin's urgent letter has been sent to Tao Ying, saying that Uncle Liu Huang's team has crossed Feishui and camped on the east bank, and it is only thirty miles away from Quyang!

"The big-eared thief is really not dead? And so many more teams? ”

After more than half a year, he finally received the news from Uncle Liu Huang again, Tao Ying was of course surprised, and the lord Bo Chen Ying on the side said anxiously: "Lord, the team of big-eared thieves has 20,000 people, and our army only has 6,000 defenders in Quyang City, should we immediately return to Quyang to prevent accidents?" ”

"There's no hurry." Tao Ying shook his head and said confidently: "Although the big-eared thieves have many troops, but the city of Quyang is quite strong, Zijing and Wen Xiang are also very effective in commanding the troops, in a short period of time, it is unlikely that the big-eared thieves will break through Quyang, and Zang Ba is still stationed outside the neighboring Yinling City, even if Quyang is in an emergency, Zang Ba can return to Quyang to help in half a day." ”

"But the two generals Guan Yu and Zhang Fei have the courage to be unstoppable, and the two generals, Zang Ba and Xu Sheng, are afraid that they are not their opponents." Chen Ying reminded uneasily: "Moreover, there are also Yuan Shu's Shouchun main force and Yinling's Qiaorui team around Quyang, and they may also be involved in the battle against Quyang at any time, and the pressure they are facing is bound to be greater, if there is anything wrong with Quyang, our main force will become a lone army without food and no support." ”

It is false to say that Tao Ying is not worried about this, but now that the attack on Hefei is imminent, not only will the previous achievements be wasted by retreating, but the Lujiang reinforcements led by Liu Kai will also take the opportunity to go north and join forces with the main force of Yuan Shujun's northern line, so that the Xuzhou army will forever lose the opportunity to break the various teams of Yuan Shujun, so after thinking about it again and again, Tao Ying still stubbornly said: "Let's do it, send a letter to Lu Su and Zang Ba each, and let Zang Ba immediately give up the task of containing Qiao Rui and withdraw to Quyang to help guard in case of emergency; Let Lu Su stick to Quyang, only defend the city and not fight, insist on seven days, within seven days, the main force of our army will definitely return to Quyang to rescue! ”

Chen Ying agreed, and hurriedly picked up the pen to make a book, Tao Ying got up and walked to the front of the big tent, looking at the direction of Hefei in the distance, and secretly muttered in his heart, "The distance from Hefei back to Quyang is two hundred and twenty miles, and if you want the soldiers to retain their physical strength to fight, you have to walk these two hundred and twenty miles in at least three days, that is to say, I only have four days to take Hefei City." Zheng Bao, Deng Dang, you must move quickly. ”

……

Let's take a look at the situation of General Zheng Bao, after General Zheng Bao and Deng Dang fled back to Feicheng by night, although Liu Kai opened the door to accept Zheng Bao and Deng Dang's defeated army, he had no guilt for abandoning Zheng Bao and Deng Dang's disregard, and he also beat a rake, insisting that he had sent a messenger to order Zheng Bao to withdraw his troops, and asked Zheng Bao why he didn't immediately execute the order after receiving the order, resulting in a big defeat for the forward? Poor General Zheng Bao was full of anger, almost desperate with Liu Kai on the spot, fortunately Liu Ye and Deng Dang held back, after some persuasion and explanation, Liu Kai changed his mind and believed that his messenger was robbed and killed by the scouts of the Xuzhou army, and no longer pursued Zheng Bao's crime of delaying the military plane.

Immediately afterwards, Zheng Jie brought Tao Ying's secret letter back to Hefei City, and saw Tao Ying accept his surrender, Zheng Bao was of course very happy, and quickly found Deng Dang to discuss how to dedicate the city, Deng Dang secretly said to Zheng Bao: "We have to contact Tao Envoy Jun again for this matter, agree on the time and password to dedicate the city, and then act on schedule." Otherwise, we will do it in the city, and Tao Yuanjun will respond in a hurry outside the city, and if we can't catch up with the time, you and my heads will fall to the ground. ”

"Then how do I go out of the city and contact Tao Envoy?" Zheng Bao asked worriedly: "Now that the defense of the four gates of Hefei is in the hands of Liu Kaipifu's cronies, my people can't get out of the city?" ”

"It's okay, I have a way." Deng Dang said in a low voice: "My team happened to be arranged by Liu Kai to be on duty at the North Gate City, you and I can prepare for it first, and when it is my turn to be on duty at night, we can use the rope to smuggle the messenger down the city and let him contact Tao Envoy Jun." ”

"Okay, when will it be the turn of the virtuous brother to be on duty at night?" Zheng Bao asked with great joy.

"Tomorrow night." Deng Dang replied: "Brother can first write a reply to Tao Zhijun, and agree that the third watch of the night after tomorrow will be called by sounding the gong, and you and I will open the city gate together and receive Tao Yuanjun's team into the city." Tomorrow evening, let Zheng Jie disguise himself as my soldier and go to the city, and deliver a letter out of the city at night. ”

Zheng Bao was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly put pen to paper, and agreed with Tao Ying on the contact code and hands-on time, Deng Dang said uneasily: "Brother, Tao Yuanjun is a suspicious person, and I may not necessarily trust you, so brother, in the letter, it is best to give Tao Yuanjun a detailed description of the grievances suffered by you and my brother after returning to the city, so that Tao Yuanjun can believe in the sincerity of you and me even more." ”

Thinking of the nest fire when he was beaten by Liu Kai, Zheng Bao was full of anger, immediately nodded in agreement, and wrote in the letter about the unfair treatment he received after returning to the city, and at the same time Zheng Bao remembered the advice of Tao Ying brought back by Zheng Jie, so he introduced Liu Ye to reconcile the contradiction between himself and Liu Kai again, and assured Tao Ying that after the city was broken, he would do his best to persuade Liu Ye to return to the Xuzhou army. Deng Dang had also heard of Tao Ying's advice brought back by Zheng Jie, and when he saw Zheng Bao writing like this on the letter, he didn't think so, but just secretly laughed at Zheng Bao's nagging and wasting pen and ink.

In the evening of the second day, it was also the evening of the second day when the main force of Xuzhou arrived in the suburbs of Hefei, Zheng Bao's absolute henchman Zheng Jie first mixed into Deng Dang's team, and then went to the north gate city wall of Hefei under the leadership of Deng Dang, and then in the dead of night, Zheng Jie sneaked down the Hefei city wall with the help of Deng Dang's brother-in-law, swam across the moat, and disappeared into the night outside the north gate of Hefei under the cover of night, but the Yuan Shujun guards on Hefei City were unaware of this...... ……

Looking forward to the stars and the moon, Tao Ying, who was secretly anxious about the safety of Quyang, was of course relieved, regardless of the fourth watch of the night, he immediately got up in his clothes and went to the big tent to meet Zheng Jie, who risked his death to deliver the letter. After meeting, Tao Ying didn't even have time to open Zheng Bao's letter sealed with wax oil, and couldn't wait to ask Zheng Jie, "How is it?" Are General Zheng Bao and General Deng Dang sure to accept our army into the city? ”

"Returning to the envoy, I dare not say that I am ten percent sure, but at least seven or eight percent sure." Zheng Jie replied honestly: "My lord Zheng Baogong still has 729 people in Hefei City, and there are more than 400 people under General Deng Dang. ”

"Good." Tao Ying nodded with satisfaction, and asked uneasily: "Then how many people know about this?" Has General Zheng Bao been careful to keep it secret? ”

"Please rest assured, my lord Zheng Baogong is also a very cautious person." Zheng Jie replied with a confident smile: "In order to prevent leakage, my lord Zheng Baogong has not explained this matter to the private army under his command so far, and will make a temporary announcement when he is ready to start." At present, less than 20 people in my main team, including villains, know the inside story, and on General Deng Dang's side, only General Deng Dang and his brother-in-law Amon know the inside story. ”

"Okay, okay." Tao Ying was even more happy, and quickly pinched the wax pill brought by Zheng Jie, took out Zheng Bao's handwritten letter from it, opened it and read it roughly, Tao Ying, who was in a hurry to break through Hefei City and kill the Lujiang reinforcements, was even more ecstatic in his heart, and couldn't help muttering in his heart: "Okay, it seems that I will have good luck with a dozen little Yuan Sangong, last time it was Yang Hong, this time it was Zheng Bao, and the big Yuan Sangong also helped me a lot, it seems that the old Yuan family is really my lucky star." ”

Uneasily, he read Zheng Bao's handwritten letter carefully, and when he saw Liu Ye come forward again to reconcile the contradiction between Zheng Bao and Liu Kai, Tao Ying, who had not paid attention to the typo before, jumped up suddenly, and the action was so violent that everyone present was taken aback, and Xu Chu, who was in charge of Tao Ying's safety, hurriedly pressed the handle of the knife and quickly asked: "Lord, what's wrong?" ”

"Zheng Jie!" Tao Ying ignored Xu Chu, and just asked Zheng Jie nervously: "If I remember correctly, you said that Huainan celebrity before seems to be called Liu Ye, right?" Why did the head of your family, General Zheng Bao, write his name as Liu Hao on the letter? ”

"This ......" Zheng Jie shook his head blankly, and replied truthfully: "The villain doesn't know, maybe the head of the family accidentally wrote a typo." ”

"My lord, is that word wrong?" Chen Deng's third brother Chen Ying came up, and after following Tao Ying's guidance, Chen Ying suddenly smiled and said: "Don't blame the lord, it's not General Zheng Bao who wrote a typo, it's the lord who you read wrongly. But that's not right, isn't that how the words are written? ”

Saying that, Chen Ying kindly wrote the traditional Chinese character '嘩' for Tao Ying, and Deputy Director Tao, who was not knowledgeable, was stunned at first, and then immediately yelled again, "This Liu Ye, is it Ziyang?" Speak, speak! ”

"Yes, yes." Zheng Jie was so frightened by Tao Ying's excitement that he was sweating profusely, and quickly nodded like a chicken pecking rice, and added: "Mr. Liu Ye is indeed Ziyang, and the head of the family has always called him Mr. Ziyang. ”

"It's him, it's an old fox." Tao Ying was suspicious, and after thinking carefully for a long time, Tao Ying subconsciously asked: "Slow, Zheng Jie, just now you said that in Deng Dang's team, besides Deng Dang, who else knows the inside story of this matter?" ”

"Amon, General Deng's brother-in-law, Amon." Zheng Jie replied honestly: "The villain went out of the city tonight, and it was General Deng and Amon who lowered the villain down the city wall with a rope. ”

"Amon?!" Tao Ying shivered again, and asked Zheng Jie in a slow tone: "Deng Dang's brother-in-law Ameng, could it be surnamed Lu?" Also, if I'm not mistaken, this Deng Dang should also be Sun Jian's old department, right? ”

(To be continued)