After hearing the news, Pu Guanshui ran more diligently to the general staff, and he had to ask Jin Qiude to give him a letter of permission to send troops. Jin Qiude was annoyed by this - the old man in the military department Shangshu could only cry if he couldn't find a way, could I also follow his example, just shouting slogans without thinking about the consequences?

"If the army is sent at the beginning of spring, what if the siege can't be lifted immediately?"

"Kaifeng City will not fall immediately because the food is exhausted, if it ...... If Governor Gao had planned carefully, I think Kaifeng would have been able to persist before April, and even April would have survived, and then our preparations would have been very thorough, and we would have absolutely certainty of lifting the siege. ”

Pu Guanshui stared at Jin Qiude's eyes and asked in a deep voice, "Lord Jin, what do you mean by careful planning?" ”

Kim Qiude didn't say a word.

Pu Guanshui gritted his teeth and asked, "Is the careful planning in Jin Da's mouth the meaning of cannibalism?" ”

"I'm not Governor Gao, I don't know what Governor Gao will plan." Jin Qiude's face did not change to meet Pu Guanshui's forced gaze, but the look in his eyes seemed to say that this was a self-evident thing.

"How can you think that, Lord Kim?" Pu Guanshui angrily slapped the case.

"I am the chief of staff appointed by the Hou Ye," Jin Qiude said coldly without the slightest emotion in his tone: "I must think about the new army first. ”

"I can't agree to that!" Pu Guanshui shouted, "I'm going to meet Master Hou." ”

"Please."

That night, Huangshi summoned Jin Qiude to his mansion, and in the face of the Zhendong Marquis and the angry Pu Guanshui, Jin Qiude still insisted on his opinion, that is, he could not send troops under any circumstances before the beginning of spring. Jin Qiude asked the Marquis of Zhendong to resist the pressure of the imperial court and leave enough time for the new army to prepare. At the court meeting the day before yesterday, after the Son of Heaven and the elders decided to make every effort to relieve Kaifeng, they had no choice but to agree to the expansion of each battalion of the new army to 4,000 people, which was a big victory for the new army and a great luck in misfortune. Jin Qiude has drawn up a comprehensive plan for the expansion and reorganization of the army, which will be completed in the first month of next year, when the new army will have nine battalions of nearly 40,000 people, and excluding the three battalions that must stay in Shandong, the number of troops that can be used on the Henan front will reach six.

In front of Pu Guanshui, Jin Qiude still had reservations, and he privately suggested to Zhendonghou that after the new army moved south in February next year, he should not rush into Henan, but first use a month to completely defeat the Shandong rebels. This military operation will be completed no later than the end of March, when the new army can be fully engaged in the Henan operation, and in early April it will begin to relieve the siege of Kaifeng.

Zhendonghou did not say anything about this, but judging from Jin Qiude's observation, Zhendonghou also felt that a well-prepared siege was the most efficient way to fight. Pu Guanshui's accusation of cannibalism touched Zhendonghou a lot, but Jin Qiude felt that this alone was not enough to make Zhendonghou make up his mind to start the battle in advance, and the quarrel that night finally came to an end.

Early the next morning, Jin Qiude and the staff officers began to work again, he heard the guards report that Pu Guanshui came to see again, Jin Qiude pinched the bridge of his nose, and commanded helplessly: "Take Master Pu to my camp, I will go to see him immediately, and you continue to work." ”

"Lord Kim, I don't think your plan is acceptable." After seeing Jin Qiude, Pu Guanshui said straight to the point.

"Brother Pu, please take a seat." Jin Qiude motioned to the red-faced general to sit down and speak. Without waiting for Pu Guanshui to continue to speak, Jin Qiude sat down on his chair first, picked up the tea bowl and listened to the other party's continuation of last night's topic, and his mind had actually flown to his subordinate staff officers.

“…… Five thousand flintlock muskets are needed immediately, and it is best to send them to the capital division within the next month, and more people need to be sent to urge them...... The armor is no longer needed, and this thing is completely useless in the face of Xu Ping. Jin Qiude lowered his head and played with the tea bowl in his hand, thinking only about the matter of training recruits, and hummed in his mouth to deal with Pu Guanshui, until he was interrupted by the other party's shocking words.

"Yesterday, I already went to visit Elder Wei Ge, and he promised to arrange a meeting for me."

Jin Qiude raised his head, his eyes gradually condensed, and became extremely sharp: "Brother Pu, you have not obtained the permission of the Hou Ye in this matter. ”

"Yes, I went to see the Pavilion Boss without permission." Puguan water surface is not ashamed.

Jin Qiude shook his head slowly: "This is not right. ”

"Cannibalism is even more wrong." Puguan water hard bang bang back.

"Brother Pu, for so many years, we have been living and dying together, I worked with Brother Jia in Liaodong, do you think I will not be in a hurry?" Jin Qiude's tone also became high-pitched, and the more he spoke, the more excited he became: "Have you forgotten? Over the years, we have stood shoulder to shoulder against the suppression and insults of Wenchen, and we fully support Hou Ye. Have you forgotten? We will always speak with only one voice! No matter what internal disagreements there are, they only confide in Hou Ye. As long as Hou Ye nodded, Hou Ye would go to the court and say, if Hou Ye didn't nod, he should go back to work honestly. We shouldn't have held back Hou Ye! ”

Seeing Jin Qiude's anger, Pu Guanshui's face showed a smile: "Lord Hou has always said that the duty of our officers and soldiers is to protect the people and protect the people, and I know that Lord Hou doesn't want to see the tragedy of cannibalism happen, so I insist that we should send troops immediately." If...... If Hou Ye said that he should eat people this time, he would not be able to agree with this voice. ”

"We only have three battalions of soldiers in our hands now, and only three battalions of soldiers can be used!" Jin Qiude shook his fingers to strengthen his tone, he had already thrown the tea bowl aside: "These three battalions need to make up for the shortage of three thousand people, there are not so many recruits in the teaching team, and if we want to deal with Xu Ping, we have to change the flintlock pistol, and the spear is useless!" That is, we need three thousand people and six thousand guns, and immediately send troops? How can it be? ”

"I've thought about this. In winter, there was no action in Shandong, and three thousand flintlock musketeers and four thousand guns could be drawn from the four battalions of Lord He. ”

"What about Shandong?"

"Does Lord Jin really think that the Dongjiang rebels can attack the city we hold on to in winter?"

Jin Qiude shook his head and said, "Even so, it is taboo to rush into the army. ”

"The Henan thieves are also in a hurry, they are not as good as us, they can, why can't we?"

"Risky, risky, Brother Pu, why are you so stubborn?" Jin Qiude sighed repeatedly, and he asked another question: "Even if you barely scrape together 12,000 troops, who should these three battalions be handed over?" Lord He was in a difficult situation, and Brother Yang's illness was not cured. ”

Huang Shi's subordinates, except for He Baodao and Jia Minghe, who have experience in leading the army independently, only Yang Zhiyuan is left. Yang Zhiyuan suddenly suffered from liver disease, and many famous doctors were helpless after seeing it.

"I was hoping that Lord Kim would be able to come out."

Before Pu Guanshui's voice fell, Jin Qiude categorically denied it: "I can't, I have always praised military affairs next to adults, and I have never led an independent army to send troops, and Lord Zhao is the same." Besides, I have a lot of things at hand, and I can't do without Jingshi for a day. ”

Jin Qiude had always hoped that the imperial court would allow Huangshi to lead the army into battle, but the imperial court was obviously worried about this. The Marquis of Zhendong has already achieved martial arts and has a great reputation, and as a marquis, no civil servant can restrain him. Therefore, the imperial court only let Huang Shi be responsible for the training of the new army as the prime minister of military training, but he refused to hand over the military power to him, even if it was handed over to Huang Shi's henchmen, the imperial court was not very relieved.

"I know," Pu Guanshui nodded, "I think I can lead the troops into battle." ”

Jin Qiude stared at Pu Guanshui for a while and didn't speak, and the latter sighed: "It's true that I haven't led a leader to fight alone, but my qualifications are enough, and I have a little prestige in the army, so there is no problem in suppressing a few battalion officers." ”

Seeing that Jin Qiude was still silent, Pu Guanshui stood up: "Master Jin, I have to go, Zhang Ge said that I will go to face the saint this morning, and I am afraid of delay if I don't leave." ”

Jin Qiude asked with a strained face, "Since you have made up your mind, why did you come to see me today?" ”

Pu Guanshui sighed again: "I hope Lord Jin can help me and work together with me." ”

"Now that General Pu is saying this, don't you think it's too late?"

Pu Guanshui didn't say more, but picked up his helmet and walked out of the camp.

Jin Qiude immediately rushed to see Zhendonghou.

After the face of the saint, Pu Guanshui was awarded the position of chief soldier by the Son of Heaven, and when he went to see the Marquis of Zhendong tremblingly after the face of the saint, he saw Jin Qiude standing next to him with a gloomy face.

"Your Excellency."

"Brother Pu," Zhen Donghou's tone was full of exhaustion, but still kind: "Why are you so stubborn?" ”

"My lord, please look," Pu Guanshui took out two iron nails from his bosom and offered them respectfully with both hands: "This is just sent from Kaifeng, and the emperor only saw it in the afternoon, and the emperor handed them over to the last general just now." ”

Zhen Donghou took two long nails, one long and one short, the shorter one was also as long as two fingers, and the long one had a tail that bent out of a handle. Zhen Donghou took the two iron nails in his hand and examined them several times, and noticed that there were still dried blood stains on them.

"This is brought from the envoy of Kaifeng Breakout, and it is secretly sent by some officials and eunuchs in the city, and the emperor has received a lot, and the letters that came with these nails all hope that the imperial history of the DPRK will impeach the governor of Henan." Pu Guanshui maintained a respectful posture and explained softly to the Zhendong Marquis in front of him: "The governor of Henan has ordered the collection of grain and grass from the people, and made thousands of these iron nails, if the people in the city claim that there is no food, the governor of Henan will insert the iron nails, this short one, into the child's feet. In front of their parents, they slowly inserted it until the whole root was submerged. ”

The muscles on Zhen Donghou's cheeks twitched slightly, and his fingers slid lightly over the iron nails, resting on the sharp point, silent.

"Your Excellency, look at the long, curved wrench behind it." Pu Guanshui continued.

Zhendonghou put down the bloodstained short iron nail, took a deep breath and picked up the long one, held it tightly in his hand, and nodded slightly to Pu Guanshui.

"If the adult still refuses to hand over the grain after the palms of his hands and feet are nailed, the governor of Henan will use this long piercing into the child's knee and piercing it between the two bones," Pu Guanshui stretched out his hand and grabbed it, as if he had a long needle in his hand that was exactly the same as that of Zhendonghou, and he gently turned his wrist: "Keep turning like this until the people let go." ”

Zhendonghou still didn't say a word, but just tightened the iron nail in his hand.

"Your Excellency!" Jin Qiude shouted: "My subordinates dare to ask my lord to put the new army first." ”

Huang Shi was stunned and asked slowly: "Brother Jin, I handed over the new army to you, and there are millions of military salaries, what kind of magical power does Xu Ping have, and why can't the new army beat him?" ”

"There is nothing special about the thieves," Pu Guanshui shouted: "My lord, what Xu Ping learned was just a little fur, if it weren't for my brother-in-law's division of troops, there would have been no problem." ”

"Why? Why is it that every time someone else causes trouble and asks me to collect it? Jin Qiude hurried to the wolf's den overnight, and said to himself dissatisfiedly on his horse: "My colleagues will never say a good word about me afterwards." I always complained, complaining that they had only received half of the grain and grass they wanted, that the horses they wanted could not be delivered in time, that I could not meet even the minimum supplies for them. Never, never only complaining! ”

As soon as he entered the battalion of the General Staff, Jin Qiude clapped his hands and shouted: "Stop, we have new work to do." Check the stock of muskets right away, the ones that have been replaced. ”

Jin Qiude asked a staff officer to quickly check the inventory, and immediately had people plan to send the usable arquebuses to Shandong in order to replace the flintlock rifles in He Baodao's hands.

Then Jin Qiude inquired about the transfer of weapons from Nanjing, and he wanted to know when he could deliver the equipment needed by the new army if Nanjing went as fast as possible. A staff officer said with a look of embarrassment: "Your Excellency, you also know that the Nanjing Arsenal has intercepted our equipment and distributed it to the defenders of Nanzhili to guard against thieves. ”

Originally, the Nanjing arsenal was supposed to transfer 3,000 newly arrived flintlock pistols to the Beijing division last month, but Xu Ping's victory at Guide disrupted this transportation plan, and Nan Zhili did not hesitate to take out all of them to arm his local troops, and at the same time sent a document to the Beijing division requesting that a batch of new army ordnance that had arrived in Nanjing be intercepted.

"Two thousand sticks anyway." Jin Qiude muttered to himself, he knew that it was not something he could do. Jin Qiude still has to go to see Huangshi, and it seems that he can only ask Huangshi to come out and make accommodations to the Nanjing officials. Jin Shen informed that there were many officials in Nanjing who had a good relationship with Huangshi, and had also received a lot of Huangshi's honor money, and perhaps Huangshi would be able to make them hand over the guns they needed.

The next day, Pu Guanshui came to the staff headquarters of the new army again, and Jin Qiude was already waiting for him there.

"Lord Kim, I'm really causing you trouble." Pu Guanshui was also a little sorry in his heart, he didn't receive the expected reprimand yesterday. Huang Shi encouraged Pu Guanshui, telling him that he would fully support his action to relieve the siege, and Huang Shi also instructed Pu Guanshui not to divide the troops, and the three battalions must form a group and act in unison. Pu Guanshui also thought so in his heart, the reason why his brother-in-law Jia Minghe failed was to divide his troops twice, and these two fatal mistakes were caught by the opponent.

"It's good to know that you're causing me trouble," Jin Qiude waved his hand and said to Pu Guanshui: "Alas, sit down, sit down, we have a lot of things to do, and time is very tight." ”

The General Staff is studying how to draw troops from the new army in Shandong, and Jin Qiude has sent a message to He Baodao to prepare him, and at the same time, the arquebuses have also been counted and will be sent to Shandong soon.

"After pulling out the 4,000 guns under Lord He, we are still short of 2,000, and Master Hou has already written to Nanjing for this, with his favor, he should be able to save the emergency." Jin Qiude spread the map in front of Pu Guanshui.

After entering October, the canal began to freeze, and soon it could no longer be navigated, so Jin Qiude had to urgently arrange ground transportation in Nanzhili, which required Huang Shi to use the favors at hand: "The Nanjing side will not send these guns to Beijing again, our people will accept them in Shandong, and then immediately transfer them to Henan." Alas, the imperial historians are going to shout again, but as long as Kaifeng can be relieved, the emperor should be able to tolerate it. ”

Pu Guanshui said loudly: "I will definitely live up to the trust of Lord Hou and Lord Jin." ”

"I hope so." Kim coughed. Although he was worried, he was unwilling to say unlucky things, and he could only do his best to obey the fate of heaven for now. He took a piece of paper from the table, on which a new type of artillery was drawn: "This is called a mortar artillery, we immediately ordered this new type of artillery from Fujian after the Battle of Lanyang, and Xu Ping has never seen it." He will certainly do the same trick of digging trenches and walls to try to stop you, but our mortars can kill and wound his soldiers in large numbers, and greatly demoralize the thieves. ”

After carefully introducing the use of mortars and the estimated effects of the teaching team, Jin Qiude told Pu Guanshui: "Counting up, one or two of these cannons should have been built, and I have already sent them to Fujian for 600 miles, so that they should not care about gold and silver, and send them to Shandong immediately." ”

"Sounds good." Pu Guanshui nodded: "It's just that there are only two doors, a little less." ”

This was Pu Guanshui's unintentional sentence, but after Jin Qiude heard it, he slandered again: "Less? After the Battle of Lanyang, the teaching team immediately stayed up all night to study countermeasures, and after repeated inquiries by the Hou Ye, it was almost immediately finalized, and then quickly sent a document to the Fujian merchants, asking them to make mortar cannons and special shells. You must know that it is Fujian thousands of miles away, and who knew that troops would be sent in such a hurry? ”

……

Henan

On Xu Ping's table were two iron nails, one long and one short, and the dark red blood stains on them looked shocking.

"The Shanlan battalion has twelve cannons and 1,200 muskets, and if Kaifeng is stormed, our army is bound to suffer heavy losses." Xu Ping picked up a nail, held it in his hand and swayed it unconsciously and gently: "There are still tens of thousands of officers and soldiers in Kaifeng City, and hundreds of usable artillery pieces, even if we fill in all of our army, we can't beat it." ”

When Gu Yanwu came in, he saw Xu Ping sitting alone in the tent.

Xu Ping asked Gu Yanwu to sit down, and when he saw that Xu Ping was still holding the bloodstained nail, Gu Yanwu asked about the origin of this thing.

"It was our army that searched for it from the messengers of officers and soldiers." Xu Ping told Gu Yanwu the origin of the murder weapon, and by the way, he told him that he had just learned from the imperial court's palace newspaper that the three battalions of the new army would rush south to relieve Kaifeng: "The attack in winter is really a bit unexpected to me, although our army has not yet recovered, but this weather is really impossible to attack, I don't know what the new army is thinking?" ”

"In that case, what is General Xu worried about?"

"I can't beat Kaifeng," Xu Ping sighed: "I've been thinking hard for many days, and I really can't find a way to capture Kaifeng." ”

"So?"

"If I block the new army from breaking the siege, then the food in Kaifeng will run out in February, the defenders will probably feed on people in March, panic will spread throughout the city, and the Kaifeng garrison will completely collapse at the end of March, or at the latest in April. And the people in the city were almost eaten by this time. The opening of this last month is a Shura field for the people in the city. Their families will be eaten one by one, and they can only feed on the flesh and blood of their neighbors......" Xu Ping shook his head and sighed: "I can't attack Kaifeng." ”

"So General Xu wants to withdraw the siege? Let the new army escort food into the city? ”

"That's all the work done," Xu Ping shook his head again: "More people will die in Henan, and the camp will be destroyed." It's a fluke, I still have to encircle Kaifeng again, and I still can't escape this hurdle. Xu Ping had sent people to persuade him to surrender several times, but the governor of Henan didn't care about it at all: "It's not that I didn't know that there might be this result, but when it comes to the end, Mr. Gu, I can't help but think that if I hadn't fought with the officers and soldiers, the people of Kaifeng would not have suffered such a tragic end." ”

"General Xu, the governor of Henan cannibalism, it is his unkindness, you sit idly by, it is your unkindness, but if you drive your subordinates to attack Kaifeng, or the new army goes straight into the hinterland of Henan, then you are both unkind and unwise, right?"

"Yes, I can only say to myself now: Ren is not in charge." Xu Ping sighed, and before he knew it, he had already held the nail in his hand hot: "I can't be Song Xianggong." ”

"I don't know if General Xu has noticed, benevolent benevolence and human people are the same sound, benevolence is not in charge of soldiers, it sounds like saying that those in charge of soldiers are not people."

Xu Ping felt the edge of the iron nail sting his fingertips: "Yes, we martial artists are not human anymore. ”

"Wenwu Shutu," Gu Yanwu asked, "But I always feel that we literati are first a person, and then a Confucian scholar, General Xu, aren't you also a human first, and then a martial artist?" ”

The tip of the clenched iron nail pierced Xu Ping's fingers.

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