Heavy snow fell again in Dengzhou, and the white snowflakes buried the corpses left over from the previous battle, forming raised snowdrifts, and a group of soldiers wearing Ming army uniforms were wailing at the city gate, asking the generals guarding the gate to let them into the city.

Zhang Ke, the chief soldier of Dengzhou Town, sneered, and said to the generals guarding the gate: "They are not allowed to enter the city, these will collapse at the touch of a touch before entering the battle, and they will be useless, and their sudden arrival is unpredictable." ”

The general was also Zhang Keda's subordinate, not the 1rì of the Dongjiang soldiers, and he had no mercy for these Liao soldiers, so he nodded and agreed, and shouted to the city: "Get out of the way of Lao Tzu, and if you get close to the city gate, you will die." ”

A general under the city scolded back: "Get out of your mother's southern soldiers, Lao Tzu escaped with nine deaths, and you are still angry with your murderous talents, why are you trying to force us to join the rebels." ”

Zhang Keda commanded left and right: "Shè die a few." ”

Several family members immediately raised their bows, and when they were just about to fill up, they shouted angrily, "Put it all down to this official." ”

Zhang Keda heard that it was Sun Yuanhua's voice, and when he turned his head, he saw Sun Yuanhua striding up to the city, followed by Zhang Tao and Wang Zheng and waiting for him, he hurriedly saluted and said: "Sun Dajin, there are some routs outside the city, and they were caught for a few times before claiming to have escaped and returned. ”

Sun Yuanhua walked to the side of the city, looked at the group of routed soldiers in tattered clothes under the city, and said to Zhang Tao behind him: "Come and recognize, is it your original army." ”

Zhang Tao looked at it carefully and replied: "That subordinate of the general officer, the rest of the subordinates are not fully recognized." He then added: "It should be all of them, all of them can be recognized in the subordinate camps, and they can be seen at the city gate one by one before letting them in." ”

"How can General Zhang be like this!" Zhang Keda said angrily to Zhang Tao, "You have forgotten about Liaoyang 1rì, if you don't put it into Mongolia, how can it be defeated once, so that the Liao affair is out of control, now Li Jiucheng is outside the city, he and other rebels have no reinforcements to expect, although we are surrounded on three sides, but there is Shuicheng as the back road, after opening chūn grain and grass reinforcements can be replenished, just hold on to the city, wait for the rebels to lose themselves, and never put any suspicious into the city." ”

The soldiers outside the city are all Zhang Tao's department, he led the troops to fight against Li Jiucheng, and the Liao soldiers under him were defeated at the touch of a button, and many of them took the initiative to run to the rebels, and even Zhang Keda's main barracks were also defeated, so that he couldn't raise his head in front of Sun Yuanhua, and now he saw that there were soldiers returning, he thought that it could be regarded as reducing losses, so he hoped to let these into the city.

He said coldly to Zhang Keda: "How does Zhang Dajin know that these soldiers are not sincere in their votes, as Dajin said, the rebels are alone, and the prospects are worrying, and these soldiers are naturally unwilling to serve them." ”

"How did General Zhang know that there was no detailed work sent by Li Jiucheng among them?"

"The lower official just said, at the city gate one by one to identify clearly before entering, they are all subordinates brought by the lower officials from Phi Dao, and Li Jiucheng and others have not worked together for a long time, what is the benefit of following Li Jiucheng's rebellion, we have the righteousness of the imperial court, Zhang Zongbing should not be overly guarded."

Zhang Keda knew that Zhang Tao was Sun Yuanhua's confidant, and he didn't move him, so he said directly to Sun Yuanhua at the moment: "Sun Dajin, the Dongjiang soldiers were in chaos on Phi Island three times, and one in Shandong, and the last general did not say that they wanted to make trouble, but the mud and sand were all down, it was difficult to distinguish, for today's plan, we only need to stick to and wait for help, the rebels have no help and no food, and then they will be defeated. ”

Sun Yuanhua looked at those Liao soldiers silently, Wang Zheng pondered and said: "There are still a lot of Liao soldiers in the city, if these soldiers outside the city are starved to death or killed by the rebels, it may damage morale. ”

Sun Yuanhua's brows stretched, and he nodded with a smile: "It's still reasonable for Liangfu to say." ”

"Big in." Zhang Keda couldn't help but say hurriedly, but Sun Yuanhua interrupted his words with a wave of his hand, and said without refuting: "Zhang Zongbing doesn't need to say, defending the city and attacking the city need to capture the enemy's qi. ”

The surrounding soldiers of the regular barracks all looked at Zhang Keda, Zhang Keda bowed his head and was silent, and did not respond to Sun Yuanhua's order, Sun Yuanhua heard no movement, turned his head and said angrily to Zhang Ke: "Is it impossible for General Zhang to disobey?" ”

Zhang Keda was silent for a while, and finally said to the surrounding soldiers: "Open the door and let them in, you search them one by one to see if there are secret letter blades, and the rest will be escorted to our barracks." ”

Zhang Tao said coldly: "General Zhang, the last general's own soldiers, he will take care of them by himself, and he won't have to worry about it." ”

Zhang Keda stared at Zhang Tao for a while, he was now disgusted from the bottom of his heart for this general who had caused him to suffer defeat in the barracks, scolded in a low voice, turned around and brushed his sleeves away......

After nightfall, the city of Dengzhou was quiet both inside and outside, and neither side went to disturb the city on the cold winter night, and the city was already under martial law, and the whole city was pitch black, leaving only the lanterns of the night guards moving around the streets.

The barracks in the northeast corner of the city is the station of Zhang Tao's headquarters, and more than 30 soldiers who entered the city are guarded here, and the two large lanterns on the gate emit a dim light, and several soldiers stand guard at the gate, almost shrinking into a ball. This army came from Phi Island, only transferred from Phi Island in September, under the command of Zhang Tao, Sun Yuanhua intended to let them become the vanguard of the town, since Chongzhen two years Mao Wenlong was killed, many turmoil on Phi Island has made these into the same plate of scattered sand, no longer Dongjiang Town crisscrossing Liaodong strong, especially now the rebels outside the city are also from Dongjiang Town, these into the psychological will not be willing to be the enemy, after the battle without the slightest fighting spirit, there will be the defeat outside the city.

Two black shadows came out of the camp, and the guards were about to stop, one of them called out the name of the team, and the team immediately closed their mouths, and the two black shadows came over and muttered to him, and the team opened the side to let the two enter the door, and went into an alley opposite.

As soon as the two entered left, two black shadows flashed in each of the dark shadows on both sides of the barracks, and they followed them from the other alley in the direction of the two entrances, and the thick-soled cotton shoes under their feet made their white spoon footsteps very soft, they were obviously familiar with these alleys, and they could accurately judge by the faint background of snow. These trackers also stop from time to time to listen to the footsteps of the two in front of them to determine the direction of the tracking.

The two entrances out of the barracks went all the way to the back near the Dengzhou Bridge, and the two entrances stopped at the mouth of an alley, opposite the alley entrance was a courtyard hung with Gengzi lanterns, and the gatehouse was closed at this time, which looked a little yīn sen.

One of them poked his head out, and the faint light of the lantern reflected his face, it was the general who Bai Yao had entered the city, and he looked at the closed door with a hint of a smile.

The two entered for a moment, crossed the street with light steps, stepped on the shoulder of the other one, climbed through the outer wall, and the rest of the one quickly ran back to the alley, squatted in the corner and carefully observed the surroundings, found no movement, and then hid in the shadows.

There are also two people in an alley not far away, they are members of the intelligence bureau action team, after Bai Yao learned that there were rout troops entering the city, he was arranged by Zhang Dong to squat outside the barracks to track the suspicious people who left the camp. One of the two groups that had just started tracking at the same time lost their target, and the rest of the group successfully followed here, and finally found clues at this time, this residence they were very familiar with, and it was the residence of Geng Zhongming, one of the key targets.

Geng Zhongming is a pacesetter in the battalion general, has always had a close relationship with Kong Youde Li Jiucheng and others, his younger brother Geng Zhongyu was the leader of the Phi Island turmoil, Sun Yuanhua confirmed the news and said that he would go to the court to punish Geng Zhongming, let Zhang Tao take care of him early, he was not allowed to go out of the house for half a step, and the guards came from Zhang Tao's camp, and at this time he should rest in the gatehouse and the wing.

The two followers discussed two sentences in a mosquito-like voice, and as soon as they entered, they gently left the alley, walking all the way through the streets to avoid the soldiers patrolling the road, and went to the contact point of Zhenhaimen Street......

In the contact point, Zhang Dong nervously sorted out the information from several places, and said in a low voice: "Zhang Tao's camp has contacted Geng Zhongming, Chen Guangfu, and Wang Zideng, all of whom are standard camp generals, and they are all from Dongjiang Town. ”

Wu Rong listened to it on the side, frowned and thought about it, he was the captain of the intelligence bureau's operations, because of Zhang Dong's initial plot, he had always been at odds with this entry, but Zhou Shifa was strict under his rule, and he couldn't get into love with anyone, so this was not the time to care about private grievances, he said in a low voice after a while: "Now all the information is tracking eyeliner, and there is no news to confirm it, and it is not good to pass on information to Chen Dajin before we confirm it." ”

Zhang Dong's eyes kept flashing, and he turned around on the information recorded, "If they do it secretly, what if we can't find out the information from the white spoon?" ”

Wu Rong was speechless for a while, and Zhang Dong continued to say lightly: "There are still regular barracks in the city, and there are also Zhang Tao's subordinates, once their white spoon news leaks, it will be the end of the head killer, judging from the intelligence, after those rout soldiers who entered the city to contact left, Geng Zhongming, Chen Guangfu and others were not sent in and out, indicating that they did not go to Sun Yuanhua to report, that is to say, they all agreed to raise troops." ”

Wu Rong asked rhetorically: "What if the defeated army asks them to help talk about appeasement?" ”

"Why do you need to be so troublesome to appease, Sun Yuanhua has even suffered defeats, Li Jiucheng has the upper hand, you don't need to do such a move to get an excellent appeasement clause, and use the rout to cover the entry into the city to contact the Dongjiang 1rì entry, it is a move to capture and capture, according to the intelligence collected by the detectives, Geng Zhongming, Chen Guangfu, and Wang Ziden are mediocre, and there are many dissatisfaction with Sun Yuanhua in Ping's speech, Geng Zhongming is even more suspicious, and he is not qualified to help negotiate the conditions of appeasement at all, but the conditions for rebellion, and all three are qualified."

Wu Rong had to admit that Zhang Dong's analytical ability was stronger than his own, so he had to say: "It's time, I'm afraid it's not easy to determine, there are only a few contacts, we don't dare to catch alive, otherwise we will definitely startle the snake, and Geng Zhongming and others may give up their plans under suspicion." ”

A smile appeared on Zhang Dong's grim face, "Even if you don't get caught, Geng Zhongming will be suspicious when you wait to enter, the longer the time drags on, the greater the possibility of them being exposed, and the time for them to do it must be within two rì, and the most likely is tomorrow night." ”

"If the judgment is wrong, if my Wendeng army moves, it may affect the overall plan of Dajin, do you want Wang Bingzhong to test it?"

"Don't let Wang Bingzhong go, he is relatively not so close to Geng Zhongming and others, and going rashly will arouse their suspicion." Zhang Dong showed a firm expression, "We can't rely on news alone, otherwise what's the use of our leaders, every time Chen Dajin talks about intelligence, the most important thing is the ability to analyze, now my judgment is that they are about to do it, as long as they open the city gate, then with the military strength in the city, it is not enough to resist Li Jiucheng's Dongjiang soldiers, in any case, we have to report these intelligence reports to Chen Dajin in advance, and ask him to decide." ”

At this time, the door knocked lightly three times, Wu Rong opened the door and let in an intelligence officer, and he reported in a low voice: "Two big entries, Chen Guangfu just sent his favorite concubine to an ordinary mansion overnight, and he sent it together, along with his two sons. ”

Zhang Dong and Wu Rong glanced at each other, their eyes were full of excitement, Zhang Dong said calmly: "Send the most powerful person to enter the city from the north gate, and you must spread the news to Ninghai and Qixia's army before it gets dark." ”