According to the code agreement with Zheng Bao and Deng Dang, on the morning of the second day when Zheng Jie sent the letter to Tao Ying, Tao Ying sent the general Hou Cheng to lead an army of 3,000 out of the camp to Hefei City to shout and fight, and took this opportunity to send a signal, so that Zheng Bao and Deng Dang, who were sincere and obedient, knew that they had received their letters, and they would also act as agreed, and send troops to attack the city at the third watch tonight to meet the rebellion launched by Zheng Bao and Deng Dang in the city.

Of course, in order to achieve some ulterior criminal purposes, the Xuzhou army's battle was definitely not a formality, it was a real battle with all their might, and three thousand Xuzhou soldiers insulted the enemy in every way under the city of Hefei, and provoked the defenders of the city to go out of the city for a decisive battle. And Liu Kai and Liu Wei's uncle and nephew in Hefei City were also once angered by the arrogance of the Xuzhou army, and planned to go out of the city to meet the enemy, but fortunately Liu Ye stopped him in time and persuaded him: "The second general, the young general, must not go out of the city, can only continue to defend behind closed doors, so that Tao Ying is more anxious to destroy the thief, and make mistakes in a hurry, so that our army's plan can be more grasped." ”

Unable to withstand Liu Ye's painstaking persuasion, Liu Kai and Liu Wei's uncle and nephew, who respected and trusted Liu Ye very much, finally gave up their plans to fight, and taught the sergeant to just defend the four gates of Hefei, no matter how the Xuzhou army scolded him, not a single soldier was allowed to leave the city. In this way, the three thousand Xuzhou soldiers scolded hoarse in vain, and Zheng Jie, who was mixed with Hou Cheng's team, was even more anxious to cry on the spot, only hoping that Liu Kai's uncle and nephew would open the city gate and send troops once, so that he would have the opportunity to mix back into the city and inform Zheng Bao of the news of his life.

The loyal Zheng Jie never got the opportunity to mix back into Feicheng, and the Xuzhou army scolded from the morning to the afternoon Shenshi, seeing that Liu Kai's team had always been hiding in Hefei City and refused to show up, and the leading general Hou Cheng had no choice but to return to the camp in despair. After listening to Hou Cheng's report, Tao Ying was silent at first, and then sighed for a long time and said, "We have done our best, let's act according to the second plan." ”

Hou Cheng agreed, but Zheng Jie, who was always wearing Yuan Shujun's clothes, cried on the spot, choked up and asked Tao Ying: "Envoy, there is no other way?" The head of the villain's family, but he really wants to submit to you. ”

"General Zheng Jie, I really have no choice." Tao Ying replied helplessly: "The four gates of Hefei City are closed, even if I can sacrifice the fine work lurking in Hefei City, it is in vain to bring the news into Hefei City, and now we can only count on General Zheng Bao's Jiren Tianxiang to be able to temporarily save his life." ”

Zheng Jie knelt on the ground and cried, kowtowing desperately in the direction of Hefei, crying bitterly while praying for God to bless Zheng Bao, Tao Ying glanced at Zheng Jie appreciatively, and comforted: "General Zheng Jie, please rest assured, as long as possible, I will try my best to save your master back, you go down to rest for the time being, and after tonight, I will give you a reward for meritorious deeds." ”

Zheng Jie also knew that Tao Ying did his best, but he was unlucky and couldn't save Zheng Bao, so Zheng Jie had no choice but to kowtow to Tao Ying and thank him, wipe his tears and go down to rest. As soon as Zheng Jie left, Chen Ying quickly asked Tao Ying again: "Lord, Zheng Bao is just a local wealthy family, it doesn't matter, why does the lord put saving him out of the city as the first place, and put breaking the enemy and destroying the enemy in the second place?" Wouldn't it be better to go straight to the second set of solutions? ”

"The reason is very simple, the people's heart, the people's heart of Huainan." Tao replied: "Zheng Bao is indeed an insignificant local wealthy family, but it is not false that he sincerely wants to submit to our army, if I can rescue him, it is worth sacrificing some of the interests of the Xuzhou army." Because of Zheng Bao's example, the local wealthy families in Huainan will inevitably have their hearts set on our army, and the local wealthy families such as Zhang Duo and Xu Gan, who were forcibly incorporated by Liu Xun, will also understand who can protect their interests, and at that time, even if Zhang Duo and Xu Gan, these Huainan heroes, do not have the courage to directly resist Yuan Shu, they will definitely not follow Yuan Shu to resist our army into Huainan, and it will be much easier for our army to gain a foothold in Huainan. ”

"It turns out that the lord wants to be a daughter and set an example of Huainan who sincerely submits to our army." Chen Ying suddenly realized, and then Chen Ying hurriedly suggested: "Lord, since this is the case, then after this incident, the lord can put a part of Zheng Bao's private soldiers led by Zheng Jie back to Lujiang, and let them tell the major wealthy clans in Huainan about the lord's best efforts to save General Zheng Bao, so that these local wealthy clans can understand the lord's kindness to them, which can also have the effect of buying the hearts of the people." ”

"Do you think I took the time to meet Zheng Jie, a small Zheng family, and I have nothing to do?" Tao Ying asked rhetorically, the smile on his face was very deceitful.

Chen Ying smiled evilly, and said: "It's best for Liu Kai not to kill Zheng Bao for the time being, if this can happen, after our army rescues Zheng Bao again, it will be easier to buy the heart of the Huainan giant." ”

"Impossible." Tao Ying shook his head again and analyzed: "Although Zheng Bao sincerely surrendered to our army, the cause of the incident was that Liu Kai deliberately lured people to rebel, and once the truth was exposed, Liu Xun would inevitably be dissatisfied and even more rebellious when he absorbed those Huainan heroes, so as long as Liu Kai was not confused, Zheng Bao's head would have basically moved." ”

……………………

In Tao Ying's crow's mouth, in Hefei City at the same time, the head of poor General Zheng Bao had indeed moved, and it had been held in front of Liu Kai by Deng Dang himself, and more than 700 private soldiers under Zheng Bao's command had also been disarmed, and more than 30 Zheng Bao's private soldiers who tried to resist were also cut into pieces by Deng Dang's brother-in-law Lu Meng and others. After eliminating Zheng Bao's internal hidden danger, Liu Kai immediately began to arrange an ambush, accumulating more firewood and grass in the houses around the north city of Hefei, preparing fires to arrange ambushes, and arranging ambushes at the east and west gates.

It was soon dark, and after the second watch, the scouts who ventured out of the city to investigate the enemy's situation sneaked back into the city, and brought the news that the Xuzhou army had left the camp to Liu Kai's uncle and nephew and Liu Ye, and at the same time, to Liu Kai's uncle and nephew's surprise, the Xuzhou army came to steal the city this time, and it was Tao Ying who personally led the team. Surprised, Liu Kai couldn't help but ask the scout: "Do you see clearly?" Is it really Tao Ying who personally led the troops here? ”

"Second General Hui, the villain can see it very clearly, it is indeed the banner of Tao Ying's thief!" The scout replied excitedly: "When the pottery thief team left the camp, there were torches lit at the camp gate, and the villain saw Tao Ying's handsome flag of the thief leaving the camp with his own eyes. ”

"Okay, okay." Liu Kai was even more overjoyed, waved his hand to let the scout go down to rest, and smiled at Liu Ye again: "Mr. Ziyang's clever plan is really clever, Tao Ying annihilated the thief in a hurry to annihilate our army and return to Quyang, so he simply led the troops in person. ”

"The second general has won the award." Liu Ye said modestly, and then smiled and suggested: "Second general, although Tao Ying annihilated the thief and sent him to death in person, this thief is known for his extermination, so he must be prevented from seeing the flaws." In the next suggestion, you can use the corpses of those Zheng Bao soldiers and throw these corpses next to the north gate of Hefei, so that Tao Ying can see with his own eyes that General Deng Dang killed our army's soldiers guarding the gate, and then opened the city gate to welcome him into the city. Liu Kai laughed and immediately asked the soldiers to do what they wanted.

Time flies fast and slowly, and it is extremely painful to wait until the three watches ring, Liu Kai and Liu Ye, who are personally in charge of the north gate of Hefei, are relieved, and after quickly exchanging a look, Liu Kai personally picked up a torch, walked to the window facing the city tower, stretched the torch out of the window and shook it a few times, and personally sent out the signal. Immediately afterwards, the fierce shouting and killing sound and the sound of gold and iron colliding quickly echoed in the North Gate City.

Not to mention, the defenders of Hefei really have some talent in acting, some people at the city gate shouted that there was internal annihilation, desperately sounded the gong to call the police, and the patrol soldiers on the city wall shouted, running back and forth with torches, it really seemed that there was a rebellion inside the city. Then, shouting, swords and guns clashed against the wall, until they reached the winch of the drawbridge, which was smashed to pieces, and the hanging drawbridge fell to the ground.

"Kill!" At the same time as the suspension bridge landed, the long-awaited shouting and killing sound of Liu Kai and Liu Ye and others finally sounded in the dark outside the city.

After a fierce shouting and killing, the north gate of Hefei was finally opened from the inside, revealing the chaotic streets of Hefei, and also revealing corpses and bloodstains everywhere, Deng Dang stood in the city gate with a knife in one hand and a human head in the other, and shouted outward: "General Xuzhou, please come in, the guilty general Deng Dang is here to greet the marquis, General Zheng Bao is fighting in the city, the generals of Xuzhou, please come in quickly!" I'll show you the way to get Mrs. Liu Kaipi's head! ”

"Kill! The lord has an order, and whoever takes Liu Kai's head will be rewarded with a thousand gold! One of the leading Xuzhou generals waved their knives and shouted, and the Xuzhou soldiers behind them were ecstatic and swarmed into the city, Deng Dang pretended to lead the way and took the headquarters to rush first, Liu Kai and Liu Ye couldn't wait to rush to the side of the city wall battlement, and looked to see the position of Tao Ying's handsome flag, but to Liu Kai and Liu Ye's disappointment and anger, Tao Ying's handsome flag always stood two hundred steps away from the north gate of Hefei, not only did not have the slightest attempt to move to the city gate, but also couldn't shoot the bow and arrow.

At this time, something more unexpected happened to Liu Kai and Liu Ye, after the Xuzhou soldiers entered the city, they set fire everywhere without saying a word, and threw the torches in their hands into the houses on both sides of the street, and the houses were already full of firewood and grass and had been splashed with fire oil, and the torches immediately ignited after entering the house, which not only lost the value of arson to cut off the Xuzhou team, but also made the Xuzhou soldiers suspicious, and many shrewd Xuzhou soldiers shouted, "No! Firewood and grass in the room! Hit the trick! We've been tricked! ”

"Bell, bell, bell!" The reaction of the Xuzhou army was very fast, and the situation was not good and immediately rang the golden gong, the general returned to the horse, the soldiers turned around, and rushed to the city gate, fortunately, at this time the Xuzhou army entered the city There were not many soldiers, and most of them soon withdrew from the north gate. Seeing this scene, Liu Kai, who secretly shouted that the sky was not blessed, didn't have time to discuss with Liu Ye, and directly shouted: "Point the number of guns, general attack!" ”

"Bang!" With the north gate of the city tower a horn bombing, Hefei city in the middle of the golden drum sounded, shouting to kill like the river over the sea, ambushed in the street Yuan Shujun shouted to kill, Deng Dang turned around and killed, respectively ambushed in the east gate and west gate of Hefei Liu Wei and Hui Cheng two generals also immediately opened the city gate, each led an army out of the city, one left and one right to the north gate of Hefei to outflank and kill, Xuzhou army was in a big chaos, scrambling to flee to the north.

The Xuzhou army wants to run is not so easy, the well-prepared Yuan Shujun teams have long been full of strength to be ashamed, although the hope of catching turtles in the urn of the Xuzhou army has been disappointed, but seeing the arrogant Xuzhou army in the past few days to flee in embarrassment, whether it is Deng Dang, Lu Meng, who has a deep blood feud with the Xuzhou army, or Liu Wei and Hui Cheng, who have killed left and right, they are all like chicken blood and lead the army to chase after each other, and even shouted the earth-shattering slogan of "capture Tao Ying alive" - the conscience of heaven and earth, Such an arrogant slogan, but even Boss Cao's team hasn't shouted it yet.

Seeing that his own team was chasing the Xuzhou army, Liu Kai, who was on the verge of failure, naturally had to personally lead the troops to chase and kill, but Liu Ye grabbed him and persuaded him: "Second general, Hefei is the foothold of our army's granary, and we must not leave lightly, and the general still stays in the city and guards it carefully." ”

"Tao Ying's thieves are defeated like a mountain, and the fighter plane is rare and cannot be missed, Mr. stays to defend the city, and I will chase and kill." Liu Kai didn't listen to Liu Ye's persuasion this time, and hurriedly handed over the task of defending the city to Liu Ye temporarily, and led the main force out of the city to chase and kill, leaving Liu Ye to stomp his feet on the city wall and sigh, "If you are greedy for merit, you will take a big disaster!" ”

Liu Ye's crow's beak did not seem to have fulfilled this time, seeing the ambush in Hefei City, the morale of the Xuzhou army led by Tao Ying completely collapsed, and he had no intention of turning back to fight to the death. In the darkness of the night, the two armies that did not share the same sky chased after me, shouting and killing the heavens, and the noise was incomparable, and at the same time, the torches were chaotic and chaotic.

The two armies rushed together, the distance of more than ten miles was almost completed in a blink of an eye, seeing that the Xuzhou camp was close at hand, Yuan Shujun up and down was naturally overjoyed, but at this time, the Xuzhou camp suddenly also had a cannon sound, both sides of the camp at the same time burst into flames, two Xuzhou armies killed left and right, among the Xuzhou army on the left, the leader was both tall and fat, holding a big knife and laughing wildly and roaring: "Liu Kaipifu, just rely on your carving insect tricks, and you also want to hide from the eyes of my lord?" Xu Chu has been waiting here for a long time! ”

"We've been tricked! Evacuate! Evacuate! Seeing the Xuzhou ambush soldiers on both sides, Liu Kai was of course frightened, and when he yelled and ordered to retreat, Xu Chu had already raised his knife and killed directly, Hui Cheng stepped forward to meet him, but he was cut down by Xu Chu with a knife before he could fight. From the right side of the Xuzhou general Chen to the prancing horse spear, in an instant stabbed Yuan Shujun three generals off the horse, led the ambush and Xu Chu left and right to attack, and the Xuzhou army that had always fled for their lives before also turned around and killed, under the joint encirclement of the three armies, Yuan Shujun was completely defeated, trampled on each other in the dark night panic, countless dead, Liu Kai, Liu Wei and Deng Dang and other Yuan Shujun generals were all frightened, one was just rushing to the road, and there was no power to restrain the team from retreating in an orderly manner.

It's useless to rush the road and run wildly, Deputy Director Tao's viciousness is also far beyond the imagination of Liu Kai and others, Yuan Shujun has escaped less than five miles, and there is already a Xuzhou army on the way to stop him, and the general at the head of the gun laughs, "Liu Kai, and Hou Cheng of the state are here, why don't you get off the horse and surrender quickly?" ”

"Rush! Rush out! Liu Kai shouted in despair, "There is a roadblock in front, and there are chasing soldiers in the back, if we don't fight to the death, we will die here!" ”

"Death to those who stand in my way!" In order to survive and boost morale, this time Liu Kai's nephew Liu Wei rushed to the front, and fought hard to fight Hou Cheng with a gun, but unfortunately Hou Cheng could only barely squeeze into the quasi-first-class general, but the poor Major General Liu Wei couldn't even rank third-rate, and Hou Cheng didn't count the battles, and the spear in his hand was picked up by Hou Cheng, screaming and wanting to turn around and run for his life, Hou Cheng turned the gun and smashed it on Liu Wei's head, smashing Liu Wei unconscious, Xuzhou soldiers swarmed forward and captured Liu Weisheng, and the Yuan Shujun soldiers behind Liu Wei scattered and fled. No one dared to come up to the rescue in a death battle.

Hui Cheng was killed, Liu Wei was captured, the two most powerful assistants were lost successively, and Liu Kai, who usually led the troops to bully the bandits and bandits and local private soldiers, had the ability to penetrate the heavens and the earth, and this time he didn't want to turn over and turn defeat into victory, and his team was beaten to death by four Xuzhou troops, chopping melons and chopping vegetables like wanton slaughter, rushing left and right to suddenly not survive, and there were fewer and fewer soldiers around him who could command, in despair, Liu Kai was about to kill himself, fortunately Deng Dang was holding on, and shouted with red eyes: "Second general, We still have hope, and the last general is willing to fight to the death to protect you from breaking through! ”

"Can't rush out!" Liu Kai cried and said: "Deng Dang, you go, if you can break out of the encirclement alive, please tell my brother, my brother is sorry for him!" ”

"The last will not go!" Deng Dang shouted with red eyes: "Please rest assured, the last general will never abandon you and leave, the last general is the old department of Wucheng Hou, when the lord mistakenly killed the pottery thief to clear the old department of Wucheng Hou in the army, it was the general's brother who protected the last general, this kindness, the last general is broken bones and it is difficult to protect in case!" Even if you die, the last will die by your side! ”

"Second General, please change your clothes." Lu Meng, who had just turned seventeen this year, took a piece of clothing stripped from a soldier who died in battle, forced it into Liu Kai's hand, and said: "General, if the villain's expectations are not bad, the pottery thief army is desperately preventing you from breaking through, it must be because of your war horse and your armor, change into soldier clothes, dismount and walk to break through, and you will definitely be able to rush out in the dark night." ”

Seeing that Deng Dang and Uncle Lu Menglang were so sincere, Liu Kai gritted his teeth and put down the knife, dismounted and hurriedly changed the soldier's clothes, and then broke through on foot under the protection of Deng Dang and Lu Meng's two generals, and the facts also proved that Lu Meng's analysis was correct, after breaking through on foot in the clothes of ordinary soldiers, the Xuzhou army could not distinguish Liu Kai's identity in the dark night, and sure enough, he no longer tried his best to prevent Liu Kai and others from breaking through, and Deng Dang and Lu Meng fought to the death, so when the sky was twilight, Liu Kai and his party of more than 20 people finally broke out of the encirclement, Flee to no man's land to Hefei City.

Liu Kai relied on the protection of Deng Dang and Lu Meng to escape, but the more than 18,000 Yuan Shu troops who went out of the city to fight were unlucky, and there was no one to command them in a unified manner, and they were surrounded by the Xuzhou army with great combat effectiveness on all sides, and they were killed all over the field, and the blood flowed all over the canal, and the dead were countless, even if they fought on the plain, the team that could break out of the encirclement of the Xuzhou army alive was less than 2,000 people. And these defeated soldiers are lucky to break out of the encirclement does not mean that it is safe, there is still a mobile force on the periphery of the battlefield Junzi Army to make up for the omissions, countless generals and soldiers died under the rain of arrows of the Junzi Army on the way to escape, and countless generals and soldiers are afraid of the bows and arrows of the Junzi Army, and they still kneel and surrender after breaking through the siege.

Of course, everything is not going well on the side of the Xuzhou army, at least Gao Shun, who took advantage of the false sneak attack on Hefei City, suffered a loss under Hefei City, and several sieges were killed by the Hefei defenders organized by Liu Ye, even if the infantry ace of Xuzhou was sent to trap the camp, he could not rush to the Hefei city wall. Forced to helpless, Gao Shun had to temporarily give up the siege, while commanding the team to intercept the defeated troops outside the city of Yuan Shu's army, and at the same time sending a messenger to Tao Ying to ask for guilt and help, asking for instructions on whether to continue to storm Hefei City? After listening to Gao Shun's messenger's performance, Tao Ying only thought about it for a while, and immediately ordered: "Tell Gao Shun to give up attacking Hefei City, and after the field battle, the whole army will collect troops and return to the camp, ready to return to Quyang." ”

"My lord, is it a pity that the enemy's morale is already depressed, so give up attacking Hefei?" Chen Ying asked cautiously.

"It's a pity, but it can't be helped." Tao Ying replied helplessly: "Hefei is an important town in Huainan, the city is high and the moat is extremely difficult to capture, even if the thunderbolt is dispatched, it is difficult to take it immediately, and our rear Quyang is in great danger, so the battle in Hefei can only be slowed down." ”

"Quyang is in great danger?" Chen Ying was stunned and asked suspiciously: "Lord, didn't the military advisor send a messenger to report the emergency?" ”

"Zijing didn't send an envoy to report an emergency, but this doesn't mean that Quyang must not be in an emergency." Tao replied: "I know the big-eared thief too well, in order to make Yuan Shu trust him more, and also give him more money and food support and a foothold, he is to pile up corpses, and he will definitely pile up a mountain of corpses under Quyang City that can go to the city!" Quyang's moat, at this time, I am afraid that it has been filled by the corpses of the big-eared thief soldiers! ”

(To be continued)