At the beginning of the morning sun, on the empty grass outside the west gate of Yangzhou City, densely packed with tens of thousands of soldiers, their faces without exception are crawling with tension and unease, these people have all laid down their weapons, waiting for the unknown disposition, today before they were officers and soldiers, and now everyone has a word in front of their name, rebels.

Wang Lanping and Shi Kefa stood at the head of the city and watched, looking at the black soldiers under the city, as well as the mountains of ordnance piled up under the city wall, and the two of them were in their hearts

couldn't help but sigh happily: It's so dangerous, almost this Yangzhou city was dyed red by the blood of his own people.

Shi Kefa's heart finally had a trace of stability, and his bleak face that had been sad for many days gradually stretched at this time, and he said to Wang Lanping, "I don't know if you are doing this right, today I have to say thank you for the people of Yangzhou, there are many rumors in the world that Wang Zhuangyuan is in Xiangshan Huaijiu to collect military power, and in Huai'an to snap his fingers An Wanjun, I Shi Kefa always feels that there is something to praise, and today I saw you achieve this great achievement overnight, which really impressed Shi Mou, which is respectable and admirable."

Wang Lanping laughed, "Those who achieve great things are not rigid in small sections, maybe some things seem to outsiders to me to be cruel and vicious, and I don't talk about feelings, but today I can get a word of praise from Inspector Shi, and I feel very comforted."

Shi Kefa smiled and nodded, "The merits of the ages have their own descendants to comment, but until now I can't believe that this matter can be concluded like this, it's too unbelievable, I don't know what happened, from your entry into Yangzhou to the arrest of Gao Jie, it was only more than half a month before and after, but what happened during this period seems to have a plan, one link is closely linked, and there is no leakage, for example, how do you conclude that Xu Dingguo must have two hearts?" Did you already know him? ”

Wang Lanping said with a smile, "No, no, I didn't know this person before entering Yangzhou, I haven't heard of it, but I know a little bit about Gao Jie, this person is a thief general, although he later served for the imperial court, but he himself understands that he is not from a good background, and he is not treated well among the generals in the world, which also creates his suspicious character, and he has a style of acting in order to fight for a breath in everything, and always beware of someone who wants to harm him, this time he came to Yangzhou, and Lord Shi categorically turned him away, how could he stand it, and then suddenly invited him into the city, With his suspicious character, he naturally won't believe it lightly, he must think that there is some conspiracy here, but he doesn't want to be laughed at, he will definitely send someone into the city to investigate, and Xu Dingguo will surface."

After a pause, Wang Lanping continued, "If Gao Jie just sent a few people into the city, then I can be sure that he has no ambitions, but Xu Dingguo's 5,000 people entered the city, this is really a bad move, and a fool can guess what Gao Jie wants to do, it is nothing more than finding out the reality in the city, and the inside and outside should be combined, and seize Yangzhou, but he miscalculated a little, Yangzhou City is in the hands of Shi Inspector, and if necessary, you can't even fly a bird, let alone the news, in the later conversations with Xu Dingguo many times, I found that this person still has residual loyalty to the imperial court, I also have a lot of complaints about Gao Jie's various illegal things, and I decided that if I want to break Gao Jie, it must be this person, and I will use a little trick, and sure enough, the soldiers are not bloody, and the siege of Yangzhou has been solved."

The more Shi Kefa listened, the more he felt admiration, and nodded again and again, "Wang Zhuangyuan knows people well, and he has the wisdom to know people, admire and admire."

"Don't dare to be, knowing that he is a must for a general, in the end, I am just a little luckier than Master Shi"

The two exchanged pleasantries for a while, and at this time, in the scolding of the onlookers, Song Xian and Xu Dingguo escorted Gao Jie through the city gate under the feet of the two and came to the front of the whole army, along with the four important generals of Gao Jie, who were arrested together.

Gao Jie was not there, but he was still unconvinced.

"Get on your knees!" Song Xian kicked Gao Jie's knee in the crook, and Gao Jie shook a few times and still stood up straight.

Wang Lanping waved his hand at Song Xian, "No need, he is also a general, and he can be killed but not humiliated."

Gao Jie glanced up at the two people in the city, and snorted contemptuously, "Hmph, if you want to kill, you will kill, see if Lao Tzu frowns"

Wang Lanping ignored him, turned his head to Shi Kefa and said, "Supervisor, it stands to reason that he is your general, and he was captured for committing a rebellion today, and you have the final say on how to deal with it."

Shi Kefa nodded, "Well, this matter is difficult to do, Gao Jie is a major general of the four towns, a high and powerful position, if he tells the court that he is plotting rebellion, then he will definitely die, but in this way, will not let the people of the world be disappointed in the court, so important ministers are anti-willful, and the court's face is gloomy."

Wang Lanping had already expected that Shi Kefa would say this, he was timid, looking forward and backward, the court was already worthless in the eyes of the people, where is it the turn of people like Gao Jie to smear them, the more troubled the times, the more extraordinary things they have to do, killing one policeman.

"Then Inspector Shi has the best of both worlds?" Wang Lanping asked.

The people in the city here have flocked to the city gate, scolding at Gao Jie, some of them were driven into the city from outside the city by Gao Jie's army for refuge, and some were ruined by Gao Jie's army outside the city, and there were also people in the city who were frightened by Gao Jie's army these days, it was a burst of scolding, throwing eggs, rotten vegetable roots, shouting, "Kill him, kill him?" ”

When Shi Kefa heard this, he was a little nervous, and looked around for a while, if he didn't kill Gao Jie, he would be the enemy of the people.

At this time, the four people who were tied up Gao Jie knelt down under the city, and one shouted, "Shi Inspector, today's change in Yangzhou is really a last resort, my 30,000 soldiers are helpless, sleeping in the wilderness, we are all soldiers of the imperial court, why is it so unfair, I and the other four people can't bear to live this kind of life, so they instigated General Gao together, General Gao didn't listen, we want to blackmail him, today is a failure, we know that we will die, please Shi Inspector give me a death, and give General Gao a light sentence"

The other three said in unison, "But I want to die quickly"

Immediately behind them, the tens of thousands of soldiers who had already laid down their arms also knelt down and shouted, "We know that we are wrong, please take it lightly."

In the face of these loyal hands, he tried his best to exonerate Gao Jie, but Gao Jie was furious, endured the knife wound on his leg, kicked over a person kneeling on the ground, and shouted, "Don't beg for mercy, Lao Tzu stands up to the sky, what did Lao Tzu admit, but God doesn't have long eyes, he didn't let me succeed, stand up, and if you want to die, you have to stand and die."

Wang Lanping turned his head sideways and whispered to Shi Kefa, "See, Gao Jie is not dead, how can you clean up this person's heart?"

Shi Kefa was in a dilemma, and finally after a long time, he said ruthlessly, "If you want to die, you can't die in my hands, come here, draw up today's events into articles, and escort them to Nanjing together with Gao Jie, and ask the emperor to judge."

Wang Lanping smiled secretly: You are really clean and self-conscious, can killing someone tarnish your reputation as a model of the world's scholars?

"Slow!" Wang Lanping hurriedly stretched out his hand to stop him, and whispered in Shi Kefa's ear, "Have you seen it, these people who laid down their weapons are loyal to Gao Jie, after last night, although most of Gao Jie surrendered, there are still thousands of people who are not convinced, you will escort Gao Jie to Nanjing, can you walk out of this Yangzhou territory?" ”

Shi Kefa said, "No matter what, Gao Jie can't die in Yangzhou, I, Shi Kefa, will never do things that are happy for relatives and enemies."

"Confused, Gao Jie is not dead, then none of these tens of thousands of hearts can be suppressed, most of them are old men brought by Gao Jie from Li Zicheng, keep Gao Jie, something big will happen, my supervisor"

"That's not good, if you want to be escorted into Beijing, you will have to be detained and wait for the will of the imperial court?"

Wang Lanping said, "It takes at least five days to go back and forth with the paperwork, and you don't know that Gao Jie is Ma Shiying's person, once this matter enters Beijing, Gao Jie will not be able to die, if the imperial court gives him a dismissal and retention, to see the after-effects, do you return the 30,000 people to him?"

Shi Kefa said blankly, "Then, if the Holy One really has this intention, then I have to, I have to do so."

Wang Lanping was angry in his heart, he never expected that Shi Kefa would be so unbearable to work with, "The scholar is angry, so what's the use of all this I did today, aren't you crossing the river and demolishing the bridge?" You dug a pit and buried me and Xu Dingguo, you know? ”

Shi Kefa knew that his words were ashamed, "It's not that step yet, or I'll go back to the government and summon someone to discuss and discuss."

Wang Lanping completely lost confidence in him, and he couldn't manage so much, facing the city, he shouted, "Inspector Shi has an order, Gao Jie knows the law and violates the law, how can he try to kill the boss, the same thing is the same as the big rebellion, the nine clans should be destroyed, the superintendent reads that he has always had military exploits, and he has a special family, and he will be killed alone, and he will be executed immediately, beheaded!" ”

Xu Dingguo, who was standing behind Gao Jie, had been waiting for this moment for a long time, and as soon as Wang Lanping blurted out the word 'behead', Gao Jie's head had already been cut off by him and rolled down in front of his four generals.

"General, general......" The four of them knelt on the ground in unison and cried bitterly.

The people in the city cheered and rushed to tell each other, while tens of thousands of people were silent among Gao Jie's soldiers outside the city, and it seemed that they could see some kind of explosive power and cohesion on the faces of these people.

Shi Kefa's eyes widened, and he was stunned for a long time, then he came back to his senses, pointed to the city and said to Wang Lanping, "This, this, this is Yangzhou City, I am the supervisor, how dare you give an order without authorization"

Wang Lanping said indifferently, "I'm helping you, boss, although I don't have as much qualifications as you, but I know that you can't be merciful when you achieve great things, you are too kind of a woman."

Shi Kefa saw that Gao Jie was dead, so he had to sigh, "Hey, the head has fallen to the ground, and it is irretrievable, this matter is over, and the rest of the people don't ask."

Wang Lanping disagreed, took Shi Kefa's arm, pointed to the city and said softly, "My lord, you take a good look at who are these people down here, after Gao Jie dies, who will you send to take over?" Who would dare to take over? The four co-criminals below are all people with a high reputation in the army, and with them, whoever you send to be the commander of these 30,000 people will inevitably be overlooked, and you are digging your own grave."

Shi Kefa was also angry, "You are too ruthless, do you want me to kill them all?" ”

"If you don't cut the grass and don't eradicate the roots, there will be endless troubles"

"I, Shi Kefa, am not a murderer"

Wang Lanping gritted his teeth and said, "Ci is not in charge of the army, don't you understand this truth?" ”

Shi Kefa waved his sleeves, "You don't need to teach me this, someone is ......" Shi Kefa made a gesture and wanted to release people on the spot.

Wang Lanping couldn't bear it anymore, and took Shi Kefa's words and shouted, "Chop!" ”

Four human heads rolled to the ground.

Shi Kefa's face turned blue with anger, pointed at Wang Lanping, couldn't speak for a long time, and waved his sleeves angrily and left.

Gao Jie and his main generals were beheaded, and more than 20,000 soldiers who lost their backbone did not know where to go, so they could only let the generals in Yangzhou City arrange at will, and tens of thousands of people were completely scattered and supplemented to the defense of the city, especially the dozens of artillery and firearms, which were like a tiger with wings for the city defense of Yangzhou City, and the strength increased several times.

And Shi Kefa has never seen Wang Lanping again these days.

Wang Lanping is also very helpless, if he stays in Yangzhou, he has nothing to do, anyway, his goal has been achieved, and it is time to go.

Before leaving, Wang Lanping went to the Yangzhou Governor's Mansion several times to resign, but Shi Kefa avoided it.

But when Wang Lan was parallel to the gate of the city, Shi Kefa caught up again, Wang Lanping asked Song Xian to lead three thousand cavalry first, and the two walked all the way, silent.

In fact, after so many days of reflection and the great increase in the city's defense strength, Shi Kefa gradually understood what Wang Lanping did, but for the sake of face, he never made it clear in person.

After walking a short distance, Shi Kefa coughed lightly a few times and arched his hand, "Wang Zhuangyuan, I'm ...... I've been before, this, hey! ”

Wang Lanping smiled, "Master Shi doesn't need to say much, I understand, they are all serving the country, and it is inevitable that the ideas are sometimes inconsistent, the mountains and rivers are long, don't send it again, please go back"

Shi Kefa's face was a little embarrassed, "Okay, have a good trip, there will be a period later"

Wang Lanping turned over and hugged his fists, "Lord Shi take care" When he said this, he actually thought of historical events, the Yangzhou Massacre, and Shi Kefa was martyred.

Pegasus left, but not long after, Wang Lanchan turned back.

"Lord Shi, the Manchu Qing Dynasty went south, the Huaihe River defense line was opened, the important town of Yangzhou is the place where the Manchu Qing Dynasty must win, you must pay close attention, in addition, Liu Zeqing, the chief soldier of Huai'an, died, I asked the deputy chief soldier Zheng Sen to temporarily take his place, the name is not right, it is said that this Zheng Sen is your subordinate, this official appointment and dismissal document, you have to bother your lord to write to the court"

Shi Kefa said with a smile, "This is natural, but I don't know that today's Huai'an Army is still not my subordinate of Yangzhou Governor."

Wang Lanping understood what he meant, and laughed, "It's not important, as long as you know that they are all Ming troops, Yangzhou city defense, Zheng Sen will help you in Huai'an"

Shi Kefa didn't argue either.

"Oh yes, Lord Shi, I saw that there were no woods over there, that was the ambush place of Gao Jie's army that day, which was not good for the defense of Yangzhou City and obstructed the line of sight, Lord Shi should eradicate those trees as soon as possible"

Shi Kefa looked at it with his eyes, and immediately smiled, "No, no, Wang Zhuangyuan doesn't know, that forest is not ordinary, it is a hundred years of resting place for the old Shoufu, and my generation should not disturb it."

Wang Lanping suddenly felt ridiculous, when did he still think about this.

"Master Shi, think about it, say goodbye" Wang Lanping didn't want to say anything more.

"Take care!"