Chapter Ninety-Four: Night Fire

On the night of the ninth day of the first lunar month, a stove was raised in the city tower of Zhenhai Gate, and the chief family members were warmed with wine at night, and they drank a sip from time to time, Wu Bingzhong walked back and forth in the middle of the hall, and Li Tao sat in the corner with his eyes closed.

Although Wu Bingzhong promised to take refuge in Chen Xin, Chen Xin himself did not promise him in person after all, and he secretly guessed Chen Xin's intentions, and often had some creepy thoughts, if Sun Yuanhua and others knew that they had taken refuge in Chen Xin, how would they deal with themselves, Zhang Dong told him during the day, Li Jiucheng might break the city tonight, and how Kong Youde and others would treat the people in the city, he was thinking about it in fear all day long.

When he turned around, he saw Li Tao's appearance, and his heart trembled inexplicably, this person called Brother Li brought eleven people, they were wearing cotton armor and chain mail at any time, carrying bows, crossbows, waist knives and other things, and each of them also had a backpack, which I didn't know what to hold.

Only five of the nine people who went out of the city last night came back, one of them was seriously injured, and he lost his breath in the afternoon, only six people remained, even Li Tao was injured, the chain mail on his back was cut open, and the coat on his body was even more stabbed.

Unlike Zhang Dong's ruthless feeling, Wu Bingzhong could feel a different kind of toughness from the demeanor of these people, and many of his own subordinates had fought Jiannu in Liaodong, but few of them had such a bearing. In addition to these people, Zhang Dong transferred more than 50 people from nowhere in the afternoon, all wearing the clothes of the Ming army, Wu Bingzhong arranged them in several grass factories on the city wall of the urn city, these people's temperament is more like the generals of the family, compared to Li Tao's group, it seems to be more casual, but they are also strong.

He was confident in Chen Xin's strength, but also felt quite frightened, not only because of the imminent change, but also because Chen Xin was even more unfathomable, Dengzhou City has long been under martial law, and being able to hide so many people in the city shows that they have already made sufficient preparations, and I don't know when Chen Xin started to prepare, it seems that Chen Xin's rapid rise in Wendeng is not a fluke.

The appearance of these people shows that Zhang Dong thinks that something big will happen soon, their role is to help defend Zhenhaimen, and secondly, to monitor themselves to ensure that Zhenhaimen is controlled, Wu Bingzhong has been mentally prepared for this, but when the matter comes, he still feels nervous, thinking of this, he glanced at the half-open door and saw Zhang Dong's back.

Zhang Dong stood quietly by the female wall outside the city tower, in front of his eyes, the lanterns and torches on the city wall outlined the outline of the city, the lanterns patrolling the city flickered between the houses, Zhang Dong already knew the situation of the city well, the circumference of Dengzhou City was nine miles, the height of the city wall reached the same as the Beijing division of three zhang and five feet, the wall was two zhang thick, the outside was all covered with bricks and stones, the moat outside the city was two zhang wide and one zhang deep, plus a large number of artillery at the head of the city, it was indeed a strong city, if there was no internal response, Li Jiucheng's people were not enough to fill the moat.

As the person directly in charge of Dengzhou's intelligence, if he made a mistake in judgment, it might cause Chen Xin's great passivity, and it would be difficult to be reused later, and if his judgment was accurate, he would definitely establish his position as the second-in-command of the intelligence bureau and completely overpower Wu Rong, Wu Jianzhong, and others, who might now be competing.

During the day, Geng Zhongming's mansion did not move at all, Chen Guangfu and Wang Zideng were on duty as usual, and the abnormal thing was that all their family members and some henchmen were summoned to the duty office, and they did not leave until the evening, which made Zhang Dong trust his judgment even more, but no matter how fully he analyzed, it was not as good as a fact to reassure him. As night fell, the irritability in his heart gradually increased, and he felt like a gambling cup, which was something he hadn't had for a long time since he started eating Jianghu rice when he was a teenager.

Zhang Dongqiang held back the restlessness in his heart, his eyes swept over the west, south and east gates of Dengzhou City again, the rebels will definitely not go to the north gate, the army cannot hide the guards of the city walls on both sides, and it will be attacked from both sides at the same time, the most likely is the south gate, the south gate not only has the Chaotian gate, but also the water gate and the small water gate, both sides of the two water gates have doorways for pedestrians to enter and exit, can invest a large number of people in a short time, another reason is that it is not so easy to mobilize troops at night, the movement distance from Mishen Mountain to the south gate is the shortest, Mistakes are also minimal, and should be preferred.

And he thinks that tonight will be the most likely time, just like the mutiny on Phi Dao, where night is more favorable to the prepared side, and the side that is attacked by the sneak attack will easily fall into chaos and will not be able to regroup.

Zhang Dongmo estimated the time, it was almost the end of the hour, except for the sound of arrows everywhere in the city, there was no other movement, he stepped lightly, moving his feet that were a little numb from the cold.

"Accounts!" A wheezing voice came from the city staircase, and Zhang Dong heard that it was the messenger who stayed at the contact point, so he hurriedly greeted him and asked in a low voice, "How is it?" Have you verified it? ”

"It's verified, they are going to do it tonight, the prince Dengxu first informed him of the generals in the camp to discuss it, and our eyeliner also participated, Wang Ziden killed several opponents, and then told the other sons to do it at the moment, and the eyeliner took the opportunity to return to the camp to lead the troops, and sent someone to inform us."

"It's almost time." Zhang Dong got the letter and walked back and forth excitedly, "I said it was tonight, and sure enough, it was tonight." Finding that he was afraid that the rebellion would not take place, he couldn't help but be a little amused, and after he stopped, he let out a long sigh of relief, and asked the herald, "Which gate are they attacking?" Will you come to hit the north gate? ”

"Wang Zideng asked his subordinates to attack the south gate, and specifically explained that he wanted to set fire to his head more."

"Set the head on fire?" Zhang Dong hesitated for a moment, if he entered the city from the south gate, too many fireheads would block the advance of the army, "Isn't it the south gate?" ”

Before he could finish thinking, another liaison hurried up to the tower, and he ran all the way, already too tired to speak, and his face was quite anxious.

Zhang Dong grabbed him by the collar, "Say it quickly!" ”

"The middle battalion of the standard and pacesetter suddenly came out of the camp, all of them were Dongjiang soldiers, going, going to Chunshengmen."

"Who's in charge?"

"Geng Zhongming."

Zhang Dong said angrily: "When did Geng Zhongming go to the pacesetter camp, why did the people who monitored his house have no information at all?" ”

The liaison officer hurriedly defended under Zhang Dong's wolf-like gaze: "The villain doesn't know, it's the first time for the villain to carry out the mission." ”

Zhang Dong was so angry that he pushed him away, a Dongjiang general like Geng Zhongming still had some tricks, and he was able to evade Wendeng's intelligence network, quietly enter the pacesetter camp, and pull out his own team.

Wang Bingzhong and Li Tao heard the sound and came out to inquire about the situation, Zhang Dong told them roughly, these two people also knew that chaos was just around the corner, and now even if they wanted to report to Sun Yuanhua, it was too late.

"Brother Zhang, what should we do now?" Wang Bingzhong asked Zhang Dong.

Zhang Dong hadn't thought of the answer yet, a loud bang shook the whole city, Zhang Dong quickly turned his head to watch, Li Tao pointed to the east and said affirmatively: "The fire is coming from near the east city gate, and the cannon is fired in the middle of the night, it's time to do it." ”

"It's finally done." Zhang Dong laughed a few times, he had a feeling that he was going to kneel, although the danger has increased now, it is much better than endless speculation.

As soon as the cannon sounded, the Chunsheng Gate in the east, the Chaotian Gate in the south and the two water gates near the killing sound shook the sky, the fires in the south city gate burst out, and they were particularly conspicuous in a pitch-black background, the soldiers on duty everywhere on the city head looked to the south one after another, and they talked about it, and the soldiers resting in the city tower also put on their clothes one after another, and watched the excitement behind the female wall, they did not have enough information, and many people thought it was a simple fire.

Wang Bingzhong looked around a little flustered, he didn't expect that the standard camp would really rebel, and muttered in his mouth: "Li Jiucheng is dying, Captain Zhang, didn't you just say that the standard battalion went to Chunshengmen, and now the south is also on fire, where are the rebels going to enter the city from?" ”

Zhang Dong and Li Tao said in unison: "Chunshengmen." ”

"Huh? Why? ”

Zhang Dong did not hesitate to analyze, "The main barracks at the south gate are the most, and now there are many fires in the south, and the army will be blocked by the fire when it enters the city, which is not beneficial to the rebels. ”

Wang Bingzhong followed Zhang Dong's finger and saw that the sky outside the Chunsheng Gate had been dyed yellowish by thousands of torches, and the main force of the rebels had already arrived outside the Chunsheng Gate, and they would contain some of the soldiers guarding the Chunsheng Gate, so that Geng Zhongming could open the city gate.

Li Tao scolded fiercely: "No wonder those Fulu troops were so powerful last night, it turned out that they were preparing for today's siege, and they should have sent the most elite ones to collect at night." ”

Wang Bingzhong is also a general who has been killed for many years, but he calmed down when the matter came, and he asked Zhang Dong: "Captain Zhang, what should the villain do now?" ”

Zhang Dong replied lightly: "According to our plan, first gather all your teams and deploy defenses within two hundred steps of Zhenhaimen City, including the city walls on both sides, and use sundries to cut them off." ”

"And then?"

Zhang Dong said lightly: "No, just guard it, let's see when Lord Chen can arrive, as long as we keep Zhenhai Gate, no one can do anything." ”

Wang Bingzhong was about to ask again, but his younger brother hurriedly came over and reported: "Brother, Geng Jing is here." ”

Wang Bingzhong muttered to himself, turned his head to look at Zhang Dong, Zhang Dong quickly recalled Geng Jingcai's information, it should be Geng Zhongming's family leader, and his surname was obtained from Geng Zhongming as his father-in-law.

"Let's go see him together."