I remember that when I didn't come to this era, Xie An once happened to see a short story of "The Paradox of Accidental Hanging".

The story goes that in a prison somewhere, there is an interesting rule: the prison withholds the exact date of execution from the prisoner who is about to be executed, and if the prisoner guesses the date before the execution, the prisoner is acquitted.

Finally, a prisoner was sentenced to be executed next week, and for the sake of his own life, the prisoner struggled to speculate.

It seemed to him that the prison authorities were aware of this rule, so that the day of execution would never have been on the last Sunday - for if there had been no execution on the previous six days, he would have guessed that the day of execution would be Sunday.

Excluding Sunday and Saturday as the last, it is assumed that the day of execution would never have been on Saturday - for if there had been no execution on the first five days, he would have guessed that the day of execution would have been Saturday.

Extrapolating in turn, the prisoner felt that the day of his execution was the Monday of the following week, so he happily told the prison his opinion.

As a result, the prisoner was executed on Wednesday.

Why is this happening? The prisoner's inference is reasonable, isn't it? But if so, why is his inference inconsistent with the facts?

But in fact, in this prisoner's opinion, apart from the accuracy of the first step of judging that [Sunday will never be the date of execution], there is a huge loophole in his judgment in the subsequent steps, that is, he will base his judgment on the basis of right and wrong on his subjective conjecture in the previous article.

This is a logical paradox, which seems to be interlocking and reasonable, but in reality, it is very different from the truth.

And now, Xie An almost made a similar mistake.

There's no denying it. The prefect of Pengze County, Yu Li, is indeed very reasonable: at present, the 150,000 Taiping troops are all confronting his Xie An's 80,000 Liang army at the mouth of Poyang Lake, so the granary of the Taiping army in the mountains and forests on the east bank of Poyang Lake must be empty of garrison, as long as the prefect of Yuzhang County, Kong Yan, is asked to raise troops to attack the granary of the Taiping army from the rear, it is bound to burn the grain and grass of the Taiping army in one fell swoop.

Immediately afterwards, Xie An also witnessed the fire, which made him subconsciously feel that Yu Li, the prefect of Pengze County, had succeeded in his strategy.

However, Xie An had overlooked an extremely fatal problem before, and that was his judgment of the whole thing. It is completely based on the oral statement of Yu Li, the prefect of Pengze County, and in fact, who can prove whether Yu Li, the prefect of Pengze County, is trustworthy?

Could it be that just because Yu Li once fought with Wei Hu, the Taiping Army's Heavenly Power God General, and almost died at the hands of the latter, he can boldly regard him as [his own person]?

If you don't know it, it's just a bitter ploy!

Come to think of it. Xie An hurriedly called Liang Cheng, the commander of the Great Liang Army.

"Liang Cheng, go and invite Lord Yu to come over...... In addition, the soldiers who called the Xiying secretly stared at the 4,000 officers and soldiers of Pengze County, and if there was any change in the 4,000 people, they would take it directly! If there is resistance, kill him! ”

Liang Cheng frowned slightly when he heard this, and said in astonishment. "Your Excellency, ...... you"

Probably guessing Liang Cheng's thoughts, Xie An shook his head slightly and said in a low voice. "The government just thought and thought and thought and thought and thought, and felt that the whole thing was a little wrong...... Yu Li, the prefect of Pengze County, is likely to be the inner ...... of the Taiping Thief Army."

"What...... What the? Liang Cheng took a sharp breath of cool air in shock, his face full of shock.

"Shh made a silencing motion. Xie An commanded in a low voice, "Don't make a noise!" The government also hopes that it is just my worries. But for the sake of prudence, let's test him! - Do what the government says! As he spoke, Xie An called Liang Cheng to approach, and whispered a few words to him in his ear.

Liang Cheng nodded again and again when he heard this, and after hugging his fists, he went to invite Yu Li, the prefect of Pengze County, according to Xie An's words.

Not long after, Yu Li, the prefect of Pengze County, came to the army under the leadership of Liang Cheng......

As soon as the tent was lifted, Yu Li was slightly stunned, because he found that the tent was full of generals of the Great Liang Army, and he arched his hand, and he said respectfully, "Isn't it a coincidence that the lower officials are here?" --Hearing that Lord Xie was summoned, the lower officials hurried over...... Isn't Lord Xie giving orders to the generals to send troops? ”

Xie An, who was sitting on the main seat, smiled slightly, did not comment on this, beckoned Yu Li to walk to the tent, and then looked Yu Li up and down, only to see that Yu Li's face was unnatural, and he looked at his clothes with a confused face.

And at this moment, he saw a hint of strange color flashing in Xie An's eyes, and said with a smile, "Lord Yu, put aside the matter of sending troops for the time being, there is one thing, the government is very puzzled, and I hope that Lord Yu will solve the confusion for the government!" ”

Yu Li was stunned, and said respectfully, "My lord, please talk about ......"

"That's the case, during the banquet in the tent yesterday, Lord Yu once said, [And now the situation is very different, Lord Xie brought 80,000 Liang troops here, although the number is not as good as the thief army, but after all, the Liang army is well-trained and well-armed, how can the Taiping thief army be stopped?] - Right? ”

"Yes......" Yu Li nodded inexplicably.

"Well, the government is here to ask you, how did Lord Yu know that the government led an elite army from Hedaliang on this trip, and how did he know that the government has 80,000 soldiers in its hands?" In the end, Xie An's eyes showed a cold color.

"......" Yu Li opened his mouth, as if he didn't react for a while.

This made Liang Cheng, who was paying close attention to him, frown, and pouted in the direction of the tent, and immediately, two generals of the Great Liang Army stood quietly at the tent position, pressing the handle of the knife with their right hand, staring at Yu Li's every move with a solemn expression.

As if noticing the actions of the two Great Liang Army, Yu Li turned his head to look behind him, frowned slightly, and said to Xie An with a stunned expression, "Lord Xie, what do you mean by this?" ”

"What do you mean? Hehehe," smiled faintly, the expression on Xie An's face changed, he slapped the table in front of him, and shouted in a deep voice, "Yu Li, what benefits did the Taiping Army give you, you who are the prefect of Pengze County, are willing to be thieves?" ”

Coldly being drunk like this by Xie An, Yu Li was shocked, and his smile suddenly froze on his face, and then his eyebrows furrowed tightly, and he looked at Xie An and said angrily, "What does Lord Xie mean by this?" ――Yu is a courtier of the Great Zhou. How can you serve the Taiping Thief Army? ”

"Well, you explain, my whole battalion only hangs the [Zhou] banner, where did you know that the soldiers under the government are from Daliang!"

"......" Yu Li opened his mouth, and layers of sweat were faintly seen oozing from his forehead, and suddenly shouted loudly, "My lord, I misunderstood." Misunderstanding, when the subordinate entered the camp yesterday, he saw that the officers and men in the army were majestic and mighty, and he was amazed, so he asked a soldier in the camp......"

"Oh?" Xie An snorted lightly. He sneered and said, "Gou Gong and Ding Qiu, you two accompany your lord and bring that soldier to the palace!" ”

"Yes!" Gou Gong and Ding Qiu hugged their fists, walked towards Yu Li, and said, "Lord Yu." Please! ”

"This ......" Yu Li opened his mouth, clasped his fists and said with a wry smile to Xie An, "My lord, there are 80,000 soldiers in the army." How did this make the subordinate find the soldier? Isn't this looking for a needle in a haystack! ”

"In that case, then don't blame the house...... Take! Raising his hand and pointing at Yu Li, Xie An shouted in a deep voice.

As soon as the words fell, Gou Gong and Ding Qiu stepped forward. In one fell swoop, it will be drained.

"My lord, I am wronged. The lower officials are wronged......" shouted a few times in a row, Yu Li looked at Xie An, and said with a little anger, "Lord Xie framed Zhongliang for no reason, how can he convince the public?" ――Yu is not convinced! ”

Some of the generals of the Great Liang Army in the tent frowned slightly when they heard this, looked at Xie An and stopped talking.

As if noticing this, Xie An slowly stood up from his seat with the support of the little girl Wang Xin, looked at Yu Li and said in a deep voice, "Lord Yu, let me call you for a while, Lord Yu, to judge whether Lord Yu is a member of the Taiping Thief Army, this matter is very simple!" According to what you said, the granary of the Taiping army in Poyang Lake should have been attacked by Kong Yan, the prefect of Yuzhou County, and a fire burned the grain and grass of the thief army, so the 150,000 Taiping thief army was bound to return to Jingzhou...... Well, I'll wait and see what happens, and see if the 150,000 Taiping troops will retreat in a hurry as you say! -- If it is true that the government misunderstands you, he will take the blame and apologize to you in person; On the contrary, if you are really a member of the Taiping Thief Army, don't blame the government for beheading you for the crime of secretly communicating with the thief army! - Gou Gong, take this person down, strictly guard, no mistakes! ”

"Yes!" Gou Gong nodded heavily, then clapped his hands, and when several Dongling assassins entered, they tied them tightly with ropes.

"Xie An, you framed Zhongliang for no reason, you will be punished, he will be the official of the court to participate in you, and you will be cowardly and delay the warplane, causing the great opportunity to pass......" Yu Li, who was scolding, was finally escorted down by the assassins of Dongling.

Glancing at the tent that was still wavering, Xie An clapped his hands and said with a complacent face, "Okay, everyone, temporarily abandon the plan to go out of the camp to pursue the Taiping thief army, and order the soldiers of the whole battalion to stick to the camp and not leave the camp without authorization, and those who violate the order will be dealt with by military law!" - It's all gone! ”

The generals of the Liang army in the tent looked at each other, and after saluting Xie An with their fists in their fists, they left one after another, leaving only Liang Cheng with a hesitant look on his face.

After all the generals left, Liang Cheng walked up to Xie An and said in a low voice, "My lord, are you sure?" - Do you really conclude that Yu Li is in the Taiping thief army? ”

Under Liang Cheng's stunned gaze, Xie An shook his head slightly, sighed and said, "Actually, the government is not very sure, the government just thinks that the whole thing is going too smoothly...... When our army was fundraising, Yu Li appeared and made such a suggestion to the government, and on the night of this person's arrival, a fire broke out in the mountains and forests in the direction of Poyang Lake...... It's too coincidental, and the coincidental government can't help but be suspicious, besides, ......"

"Again?"

Glancing up in the direction of Poyang Lake, Xie An muttered, "It seems that there is such a wise man who is so wise and can be called a demon, and there is also a person in the mansion, it is definitely not so easy to take advantage of her...... Don't be greedy for small profits, otherwise you will die without a place to be buried! ”

"......" Liang Cheng was confused, and subconsciously glanced at Wang Xin, the little girl with a confused face, who tilted her head and looked confused, no matter how she looked at it, she didn't think that this stupid girl who looked very stupid was a wise man, so she didn't answer the call very interestingly, hugged her fists and withdrew from the tent.

At the same time, in the marshal's tent in the Taiping military camp thirty miles away from Xie An's barracks, Ji Liu Qing in the sky was staring at the marching map on the table, frowning and thinking about something.

I don't know how long it took, suddenly a Taiping army general hurriedly walked in, knocked on the ground and clenched his fists and said, "Princess Qiqi, according to the princess's orders, 20,000 soldiers of our army have retreated to the west......

"Hmm." Liu Qing nodded and asked casually, "Did the Zhou army send scouts to monitor it?" ”

"Princess Hui, I haven't seen the scouts, but there are some agile guys who are monitoring our army's every move, it is estimated that the assassins under Xie An's hands are either the Dongling assassins or the Jinling assassins!"

"Very well, let these people pass the news [of our army preparing to retreat] to Na Xie An, I don't believe that this guy is still unmoved...... said. Liu Qing couldn't help but smile a little on her face.

As Xie An guessed, Yu Li, the prefect of Pengze County, was indeed a member of the Taiping Army, and Liu Qing deliberately put it next to Xie An, in order to lure Xie An out of the camp that was as hard as a turtle shell, for this reason. Liu Qing did not hesitate to let Yu Li fight with the Heavenly Power God General Wei Hu and Zhen Zhen, sacrificing the lives of thousands of soldiers.

Although most of the officers and soldiers of Pengze County are not from his Taiping Army, you must know that as long as Yu Li, who is the prefect of Pengze County, is in the hands of her Liu Qing, then she is bound to be able to command the officers and soldiers of Pengze County at will, in other words, those officers and soldiers are undoubtedly the Taiping Army officers and soldiers under her hands. It is conceivable how heavy the price Liu Qing paid in order to lure out Xie An this time.

"Although Xie An's guy has been stopped here for a few days, it shouldn't affect the schedule much......" looked at the marching map. Liu Qing muttered, "The Zhou Imperial Court should not be able to send reinforcements in a short period of time, well, that's it. As long as the 80,000 Liang army of Xie An is eliminated, the entire Jiangdong should not be a problem. When the time comes, send people to blockade the river, and the Zhou team, which is not good at water warfare, will definitely not be able to attack the Jiangnan ......"

Speaking of this, Liu Qing nodded again and again, her wrinkled eyebrows stretched, and she asked in a somewhat relaxed tone, "Go and explore the movements of the Xie An military camp!" - Calculate the time, then Xie An should almost raise troops to attack our army! ”

"Yes!" The Taiping general retreated with his fists clenched.

About half an hour later, the Taiping army general went and returned, his expression a little strange.

"Princess Qiyu, there is no movement in the Xie An military camp! -- The whole camp was very quiet, and there was no intention of raising troops to attack our army......"

"What?" Liu Qing was stunned when she heard this, and then chuckled with relief and said, "It's really cautious...... It seems that if we didn't wait for all 150,000 of our army to evacuate here, that guy wouldn't have led his army out...... That's it! Command all the soldiers to retreat sixty miles to the west! ”

"Yes!"

In about half a day, the 150,000 Taiping troops divided into several waves and slowly retreated westward.

During this period, Liu Qing took a few people such as Withered Sheep and Wei Hu to climb up on a hill about seven or eight miles away from Xie An's military camp to look.

What made her unbelievable was that the 150,000 troops under her command had obviously withdrawn at least twenty miles to the west, but Xie An's camp was still so calm.

"Could it be that Xie An hasn't learned the news of our army's withdrawal yet?"

Thinking of this possibility, Liu Qing secretly suppressed her anxious mood.

Suddenly, Wei Hu's eyes lit up, and he pointed to the Zhou military camp and said happily, "Princess, the Zhou military camp has opened the gate!" - They've been tricked! ”

At the same time that Liu Qing subconsciously turned his head to look, the withered sheep also turned his head to look in the direction of Zhou Ying, and what made them stunned was that there was only a small group of people in Zhou Ying, and if they counted roughly, I am afraid that there were only about a hundred.

"Scouts? - What a prudence! Liu Qing muttered, rubbing her head a little anxiously, I have to say that she was really a little annoyed by a [cautious] opponent like Xie An.

To tell the truth, Liu Qing thought that Xie An was cautious, so she sent a hundred or so people out to investigate the movements of their Taiping army, but what stunned her was that about half an hour later, she suddenly found that the camp she had asked her subordinates to supervise again had caught fire again.

Only then did she realize that the hundred or so people were not scouts, but to burn down her military camp that had not yet been completely built, after all, her 150,000 troops were now evacuated to the west, and although there were only about 100 people on the other side, it was enough to set fire to this military camp.

Do you care more about burning down our army's camp than pursuing our army?

Liu Qing frowned slightly, calculating the loss in her heart, and at this moment, she suddenly saw that the small group of people had returned to the Zhou army camp after burning down her military camp, and since then, there has been no movement in the entire Zhou army camp.

An hour passed, and there was no movement in the Zhou military camp......

Two hours have passed, and there is still no movement in the Zhou military camp......

Four hours passed, and smoke rose from the Zhou army camp, as if the Great Liang army was already preparing dinner......

"It seems that Zhou Jun will not come out......" Wei Hu said with a strange expression, and then as if he had thought of something, he quietly glanced at Liu Qing's face beside him, but saw that her whole face was flushed, and her eyes were full of anger.

Doesn't come out like this?

He obviously created such a favorable situation for Xie An, but he didn't even come out?

Is that guy really a man?

He took the trouble to pay such a big price to lure him into sending troops, and as a result, this guy sent a hundred or so people to burn his own barracks again and returned to the camp satisfied?

It's so shameless......

How can there be such a person?

After waiting for another hour, until night was approaching, seeing that the Zhou army camp was still silent, Liu Qing went down the mountain with a pretty face.

That night, the Zhou army did not move.

The next day, the Zhou army still had no intention of going out of the camp to pursue the Taiping army, as if Xie An had made up his mind to be nailed to the land at the mouth of the lake.

Shameless!

Cursing endlessly in his heart, Liu Qing reluctantly called his 150,000 Taiping troops to return to the ruins of the camp that had been burned down twice in the early morning of July 29.

After a few days in vain, the confrontation between her and Xie An returned to the original starting point.