"How do you take Shouchun City?" After returning from visiting the city in person, this question has always been in Tao Ying's mind. In Tao Ying's view, with the city defense situation of Shouchun, if the Xuzhou army attacks at any cost, and with the counterweight Xiangyang cannon that surpasses the times, it is only a matter of time before Shouchun City is broken, but this casualty must be an unbearable pain for the Xuzhou army, which will be extremely unfavorable to the Xuzhou army's next battle to capture the entire territory of Huainan, so Tao Ying did not consider a frontal attack from the beginning, and made up his mind to outwit Shouchun City and take Shouchun, the first important town in Huainan, at the lowest cost.

Outwitting Shouchun, easy to say but difficult to do, first of all, the first point is that the premise of using the strategy is extremely insufficient, since there is no effective response of the Xuzhou army in Shouchun City, there is not enough intelligence support, can not know oneself and know the other, at the same time, the special terrain of Shouchun surrounded by water has also created a lot of trouble for the surprise attack of the Xuzhou army. It is even more difficult to let Xiao Yuan Sangong take it lightly and expose his flaws, and if he does not force the fat water and does not attack Shouchun City directly, he is in a dilemma and contradictory, so he is resourceful and is like Deputy Director Tao, and he really can't think of any good way to quickly take Shouchun City for a while.

But fortunately, the Xuzhou army still has a little time, the most dangerous hidden danger Liu Huangshu has been eliminated by the Xuzhou army and the Huainan army, the Huainan army's Lujiang and Liyang two waves of reinforcements have also been broken by the Xuzhou army, except for Shouchun, the important town of the Huainan and northern lines and the grain and grass in the city have also fallen into the hands of the Xuzhou army, and within a certain period of time, you can worry about it, Tao Ying also has a little time to arrange and prepare for the siege war, and ponder the conspiracy and tricks of the master to deal with Xiao Yuan Sangong.

In the next two days, in addition to seizing the time to cut down trees to build Xiangyang cannons, the Xuzhou army did not launch a rush to cross the war, but only pushed the existing 20 Xiangyang cannons to the bank of Feishui, and bombed the Yuan Shujun river fortifications on the opposite bank, destroying many of the antlers set up by Yuan Shujun, Yuan Shujun did not dare to cross the river to raid the Xiangyang artillery team of the Xuzhou army, and could only carefully dodge the huge stone bullets that flew from time to time, while rushing to repair the temporary fortifications at any time, and the turtle did not come out of the shell and resolutely fought against the Xuzhou army across the river.

In view of the fact that the damage of the Xiangyang cannon to these temporary fortifications was not very effective, and Yuan Shujun repaired and rebuilt these simple temporary fortifications at any time, and some Xuzhou generals suggested to Tao Ying to stop throwing stones, reduce the wear and tear of the Xiangyang cannon in order to attack the city in the future, and leave the good steel on the blade, but Tao Ying shook his head and rejected this kind suggestion, saying: "Don't be in a hurry to stop throwing stones, let the enemy see the power of the Xiangyang cannon with his own eyes, let the enemy know that their Shouchun City may not be impregnable, and give birth to timidity, and then we may seize the opportunity to exploit the loophole." , so don't stop throwing stones for the time being, and wait for the thunderbolt to achieve certain results. ”

Xu Sheng, who made this suggestion, was reluctant to retreat honestly, but Lu Su, who was acting for Tao Ying as the rear clerk of Xuzhou, heard the clue and asked tentatively: "Let the enemy be timid, does the lord want to use the tactics of attacking the heart?" ”

Tao Ying didn't rush to answer Lu Su's question, and pondered for a long time before slowly answering: "As far as the current situation is concerned, the heart attack tactic is indeed a good choice, but unfortunately I don't know anything about the situation in Shouchun City and the situation in Yuan Shu's army, and the enemy situation is unknown, so I can only imagine and speculate Yuan Shu's current psychological state out of thin air, and I can't start if I want to attack the heart, let alone be sure." ”

"Yes, we have too little grasp of the enemy situation in Shouchun, and we can't know ourselves and the other and adapt measures to local conditions." Lu Su echoed and sighed, and said hatefully: "The hateful Yuan Shupifu not only tightly sealed the gate of Shouchun City, so that our army could not pass the news out of the city, but also ignored the moral rules of the two countries to fight and not kill the envoys, and blatantly killed the envoys of our army, otherwise, the envoys of our army will find an excuse to enter the city to meet with Yuan Shupifu, and maybe they will be able to get a little bit of the current situation in Shouchun." ”

"Moral rules?" Tao Ying snorted disdainfully, "Yuan Shupifu is arrogant, and he dreams of being an emperor, where can the moral rules of ordinary people restrain him?" In the eyes of this puppet, his words are morality, and his interests are rules and ......, huh? ”

As usual, the honest man Lu Su's honest words can often wake up Deputy Director Tao, who is three points smoother than the crystal monkey, and this time it is the same, casually gossiping Deputy Director Tao's heart moved, and the mung bean eyes in a pair of triangular eyes immediately turned quickly, and his mouth began to get used to muttering, "Messenger? Emissary? Lu Su and Tao Ying have been together for a long time, knowing Tao Ying's strange habits, he quickly closed his mouth, not daring to disturb Tao Ying's train of thought, and patiently waiting for Tao Ying's calculation and perfection must be a conspiracy to smoke from the ancestral tomb for lack of virtue.

Sure enough, after the mung bean's eyes rolled dozens of times, Tao Ying really took a few shots and said happily: "Thanks to Zijing's reminder, I almost forgot that there is a messenger entering the city pit to be abducted, hurry, call Song Kai's kid to see me immediately." ”

"Lord, Yuan Shu Pifu hates our army to the bone, but he has already killed the envoy of our army, Song Kai is afraid that he will die in vain when he enters the city, right?" Lu Su reminded in surprise.

"Song Kai entered the city under the banner of our army, and he was indeed sent to death in vain." Tao Yingjian replied with a smile: "But if Song Kai entered the city under the banner of another prince, Yuan Shupifu would definitely not kill him, and he would definitely meet him in person!" ”

"Entering the city under the banner of another prince? The princes? "Honest man Lu Su obviously hasn't turned his head for a while.

"What do you say?" Tao Ying asked with a smile.

Lu Su's eyes also rolled a few times, and then he immediately slapped his forehead and said with a smile: "Su is confused, let Song Kai cross the river and enter the city under his banner, Yuan Shupifu will not dare to kill Song Kai, and he will definitely meet Song Kai in person!" ”

……………………

A day later, in Shouchun City, after the end of the daily routine worship of heaven and earth and praying for the gods to bless him early in the ninth five-year period, Xiao Yuan Sangong finally came to the meeting hall to discuss with Huainan Zhuwen and Wu the strategy of retreating from the enemy, and understand the current situation of Shouchun war. Swaggered and sat down in the middle, and it was not until the Huainan officials knelt and bowed that Xiao Yuan Sangong hummed nondescriptly: "Flat, get up, the Xuzhou thief army, is there any movement today?" ”

"Back to the lord, it's still like that." Yuan Si, one of the most trusted generals of Xiao Yuan Sangong, replied respectfully: "As soon as dawn they pushed their stone cart to the bank of Feishui, and kept throwing stones at our army's defense line. The rest is the same as yesterday, the main force of the Xuzhou thief army is standing still on the west bank of Feishui, and the officers and men of our army are rushing to repair the river fortifications at any time, and strictly inspect the Feishui riverbank, so as not to give the Xuzhou thief army the slightest hole to exploit. ”

"That's fine." Xiao Yuan Sangong was very satisfied, and said: "As long as Tao Ying's thief does not dare to force the Feishui, it is good, if the Feishui is held, Shouchun can be safe and sound, and then wait for the follow-up reinforcements of Lujiang and Liyang to arrive, and our army can try to counterattack and recapture all the occupied land and cities." ”

Not everyone is as confident as little Yuan Sangong, at least Lord Bo Yanxiang didn't dare to be optimistic casually, and asked Yuan Si without the permission of little Yuan Sangong: "General Yuan, what is the morale of the troops on our army's Feishui defense line at present?" The Xuzhou thief army constantly bombarded our army's defense line with stone machines, what was the impact on morale? ”

"The stone machine of the Xuzhou thief army still has a great impact on the morale of our army." Yuan Si replied honestly: "Now the soldiers of our army basically dare not approach within 400 steps of the Xuzhou thief army's stone machine, and the auxiliary soldiers who rush to repair the fortifications must also have a team to keep an eye on at all times, otherwise once the thief army's stone machine approaches, our auxiliary soldiers may escape cleanly." For this reason, our army has killed a team leader, two chiefs and more than a dozen deserters, but our soldiers are still very afraid of the stone machine of the Xuzhou thief army, and the lower-level generals hope that the thief army will stop throwing stones at night and then rush to repair the river defense fortifications, and concentrate on avoiding the stone machine ...... the thief army during the day. ”

"Fart!" Before Yuan Si's words were finished, Xiao Yuan Sangong was already angry and scolded regardless of his identity, and shouted: "The river defense fortifications must be repaired and rebuilt at any time, and they must not be left alone, otherwise, what should I do if the Xuzhou thief army suddenly rushes to cross the fat water?" If the order goes down, no matter who is lazy and refuses to repair the river fortifications, no matter who it is, no matter how many, all of them will be beheaded and questioned! ”

Yuan Si, who didn't need to go to the Xiangyang artillery coverage to repair the fortifications in person, respectfully agreed, but several smart strategists of the Huainan army next to him were worried, and Shu Shao, who had completely fallen out of favor, said cautiously: "This matter cannot be taken lightly, our army's field battle is not as good as the Xuzhou thief army, if the morale continues to decline, the consequences may be unimaginable......." ”

"What then?" Xiao Yuan Sangong glanced at Shu Shao, and said in a strange manner: "Could it be that Mr. Zhongying wants to let Gu send someone to find Xuande Gong and invite Xuande Gong back?" ”

"The lord misunderstood, and the subordinates didn't mean that." Shu Shao, who led the wolf into the room, was extremely embarrassed, and hurriedly explained, Yan Xiang next to him stood up again, and said to Xiao Yuan Sangong: "Lord, let him pass the past, Shu Zhongying is also for the sake of the lord, morale can not be discharged, if morale continues to decline, it will indeed be very unfavorable to our army's next war." ”

Revenge for Shu Shao's defense with virtue, Yan Xiang frowned again and said: "In fact, according to the views of his subordinates, not only must we pay attention to the shaking of the army's heart, but also two points that should be paid attention to, one is that the stone machine of the Xuzhou thief army can throw stones for 400 steps, and the moat of Shouchun cannot be widened to more than 400 steps. The second point is that it is already the middle of July, and the winter wheat will have to be planted in more than a month, and if the Xuzhou thief army is not repelled as soon as possible and resume farming, the famine in Huainan next year will be even more serious. ”

Xiao Yuan Sangong's face was gloomy, and after gritting his teeth and thinking for a while, Xiao Yuan Sangong shouted: "From now on, make every effort to strengthen the Shouchun City Wall and prevent it!" This matter is personally responsible for you and Yuan Si, and you must learn the lessons of Yin Ling. ”

Yan Xiang respectfully agreed, and asked cautiously, "Lord, how to deal with the resumption of farming?" His Majesty suggested that before the loss of the Feishui defense line, the peasants and people in the city could be allowed to leave early and return late, cultivate the land, sow seeds and work for the next year's ....... ”

"No way!" Xiao Yuan Sangong rudely interrupted Yan Xiang's words, and said angrily: "Yan Gong, you are a lonely thinker, how can you be so confused?" Open the city gate to allow the people to go out early and return late, what if the Xuzhou thief army takes the opportunity to sneak into the city? As long as the Xuzhou thief army is repelled, we can transfer grain from the south in the coming year. ”

"What about the people of Shouchun?" Yan Xiang muttered in his heart, some wanted to insist, but he knew that Xiao Yuan Sangong's words were not unreasonable, the Xuzhou army made good use of the internal annihilation to lead the way party, Quyang City was because of the internal annihilation bought by the Xuzhou army to set fire to the city, which led to the loss of Quyang City overnight, and opened the city gate to allow the people to enter and leave the farming, which would indeed give the Xuzhou army a great opportunity to repeat the old skills, so although Xiao Yuan Sangong's decision was cruel, it was very correct militarily, and Yan Xiang would not be able to mislead Xiao Yuan Sangong to make mistakes.

At this time, a herald suddenly came in from outside the hall, and he came to Xiao Yuan Sangong and whispered a few words in the ear of his younger brother Yuan Yin, Yuan Yin's face suddenly became strange, and he peeked at Xiao Yuan Sangong and stopped talking, Xiao Yuan Sangong saw the movement, and asked, "What's the matter?" Why don't you just report it to the solitary song? ”

"Returning to the lord is a matter of the envoy's visit, and the subordinates are also on the errand of the guest, so the herald will report to the ministers first." Yuan Yin explained the reason, and said tremblingly: "Lord, your brother Benchu Gong ......, sent a messenger here, this envoy came out of the camp of the Xuzhou thief army, waving a white flag to Feishui Ferry to ask to cross the river, I hope that the lord can meet ......." ”

"Bang!" Xiao Yuan Sangong slapped the table in front of him heavily, and his thin face suddenly turned red, and he roared: "The concubine gives birth to a house slave!" connived at his son-in-law to invade the land of Guhuainan and kill the soldiers of Guhuainan, and even dared to send a messenger to meet Yugu? No, tell him to get out! ”

Yuan Yin trembled and sang the promise, but he didn't dare to immediately order to drive away Yuan Shao's envoy - Yuan Yin is the common brother of Yuan Sangong, and he really knows too well the grievances between these two best brothers, and he also knows too much about the hatred, fear and jealousy of the little Yuan Sangong to the big Yuan Sangong, so before the little Yuan Sangong really makes a decision, Yuan Yin really doesn't dare to carry out the angry words of the little Yuan Sangong - otherwise, if the black pot is not good, Yuan Yin, the clan brother, will have to carry it.

Sure enough, Yan Xiang, who also knew the surname of Xiao Yuan Sangong, stood up and repaired the steps, saluted Xiao Yuan Sangong and said: "Lord, your subordinates think that it is better to see each other, no matter what, Yuan Benchu is also your brother to the lord, and refusing to meet his envoy is neither in accordance with etiquette nor family affection. ”

Speaking of this, Yan Xiang said cautiously: "Besides, the current enemy of our army, Tao Ying thief, is the son-in-law of Ben Chu Gong, and the Xuzhou thief army dares to go south, but it is also with Yuan Benchu's permission and protection, and he keeps in touch with Ben Chu Gong, and when necessary, he can also use brotherly affection to suppress Tao Ying's thief by the hand of Ben Chu Gong, and even ...... to force Tao Ying to retreat." ”

There was silence in the lobby, and all the Yuan Shujun civil and military forces hoped that Xiao Yuan Sangong would be able to meet with Yuan Shao's envoy and leave a way out for the army, but they were not as favored as Yan Xiang, so they didn't dare to persuade casually, just waited with bated breath for Xiao Yuan Sangong's decision. And after Xiao Yuan Sangong gritted his yellow teeth and hesitated for a long time, he finally didn't dare to completely offend his half-brother, and said very reluctantly: "Since Yan Gong said brotherhood, for the sake of family affection, let the envoy of the concubine and the house slave cross the river to meet him." ”

Yuan Yin breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly conveyed this order, and after more than half an hour, Yuan Shaojun's envoy, a middle-aged scribe in his thirties, was led into the hall, bowed in front of Xiao Yuan Sangong, and saluted neither humbly nor arrogantly: "Song Kai and Song Bei'an, the middle guest of the Mansion of the Marquis of Qixiang, Song Kai and Song Bei'an, on the order of the lord, meet the deputy master of the family, General Zuo, Yang Zhai Marquis Yuan Gong, and Yuan Gong Jin'an. This is a letter from the Lord, please accept it by Yuan Gong. ”

Speaking respectfully, Song Kai picked up a letter with both hands, bowed over his head, and the left and right guards came up to take it and presented it to Xiao Yuan Sangong, who was too lazy to pick it up as if he was dirty, but asked the guards to put the letter on the case, and then snorted coldly: "The second master of this family? Was it the concubine who gave birth to ......, and it was the brother who taught you to call you Lone? Lone is the sister-in-law of the Yuan family, and the only head of the Yuan family, when did he become the second head of the Yuan family? Who is the eldest master of the Yuan family? Could it be that he Yuan Shao Yuan Benchu, he is also worthy?! ”

Song Kai closed his mouth and didn't dare to speak, but he scolded his boss in his heart for harming others, and he didn't know that Yuan Shaojun's official name for little Yuan Sangong was forgotten, and he also taught himself an honorific title that made little Yuan Sangong unhappy. But fortunately, the little Yuan Sangong, who was actually very afraid of his brother in his heart, didn't care too much about this matter, hummed a few words and saw that Song Kai didn't speak, and he didn't bother to worry about a diner of his own Yuan family, so he grabbed Yuan Shao's handwritten letter to watch, but what was angry about Xiao Yuan Sangong was that in addition to the fake description of some brotherhood and greetings to the health of his brother in the letter, there was no substantive word, it was completely nonsense, and writing was equivalent to not writing!

"Yuan Benchu sent you here, is it just to send such a letter?" Xiao Yuan Sangong trembled the letter and said angrily: "What does he mean by repeatedly greeting Lonely's physical well-being and diet? Do you want to say that you should take care of your good body and not be killed by his filial son-in-law?! ”

"Duke Yuan misunderstood, my lord has no such intention." Song Kai was startled, quickly shook his head and denied it, and said cautiously: "My lord also knows that Duke Yuan will definitely ask, why did he say nothing in the letter?" The specific reason is that the little envoy did not dare to deceive Yuan Gong, because my lord had some words that were inconvenient for pen and ink, so he did not write them on the letter, but just let the villain carry the message. ”

"What message? Say! Xiao Yuan Sangong urged impatiently.

"No." Song Kai respectfully agreed, and said more respectfully: "My lord asked the villain to play Yuan Gong, the reason why he allowed his son-in-law Tao Ying to send troops to Huainan was not for the sake of his brother's wall, but because Yuan Gong was greedy for ink to pass on the jade seal of the country, and refused to return the jade seal to the Son of Heaven, he had to ............ it. ”

"Refuse to pass it on to the jade seal and return it to the Son of Heaven?" Xiao Yuan San almost didn't tilt his nose, and laughed angrily: "When did he Yuan Benchu have a son of heaven in his eyes?" If he really worships the Son of Heaven, then he wants to work with Han Fu to support Liu Yu as the emperor? So far, he is the only one Yuan Shao and Yuan Ben! ”

Song Kai trembled a little again, peeked at Xiao Yuan Sangong, and saw that Xiao Yuan Sangong had no intention of pushing himself out and cutting him, so he was a little relieved, and then said cautiously: "Yuan Gong, my lord asked the little envoy to ask you, I don't know if Yuan Gong would like my lord to come forward to mediate the war between Yuan Gong and the Xuzhou army, and let Tao Ying serve Yuan Gong as a gift to his uncle?" ”

As soon as the tail of the eldest Yuan Sangong was cocked, the little Yuan Sangong knew what the eldest brother was going to! So as soon as Song Kai finished speaking, Xiao Yuan Sangong immediately laughed and said angrily: "Is your words not finished yet?" Does Lone's brother still think about anyone, if he wants to mediate the war, he has to hand over the jade seal of the country to him?! ”

"Yuan Gong Shengming, it's true." Song Kai nodded tremblingly, and said even more tremblingly: "In addition, my lord also hopes that Duke Yuan can take out 300,000 pieces of grain ......and grass, 500 catties of gold and silver, and 1,000 horses of colored satin, as a congratulatory gift to the daughter of my lord, and wish my lord's daughter a happy marriage. ”

Speaking of this tremblingly, Mr. Song Kai, a diplomatic liar in Xuzhou, was already trembling again, but what Song Kai and Deputy Director Tao, the mastermind behind the scenes, never dreamed of was that when they heard Song Kai's mediation conditions publicly announced for Da Yuan San, our little Yuan Sangong was actually moved............

(To be continued)