After He Baodao returned home today, Mrs. He saw that the melancholy on her husband's face was heavier than before, so she asked when it was. He Baodao told his wife: "Today Hou Ye and Yuan Fu had a big quarrel, and Hou Ye said to the Son of Heaven that if you don't kill Hou Sui, you can't thank the people of the world." ”

"What did the emperor say?" Mrs. He asked.

He Baodao shook his head, "Yuan Fu said to the emperor, after all, Inspector Hou and Governor Gao are contributing to the emperor and Sheji, if the emperor severely punishes them this time, then who will be willing to share the emperor's worries in the future?" ”

Hearing this, Mrs. He's face also became anxious: "But now there are many people in the streets and alleys, and they are all bad things about the court." ”

"This emperor also knows," He Baodao nodded, and said: "The emperor is also worried that the people's will is not conducive to the society, but Yuanfu said that the emperor is ruling the world with scholars, and the foolish people and foolish women don't understand the country's righteousness. ”

"Then there is no punishment for Hou Sui? Did the emperor just let him go? ”

He Baodao's tone was completely uncertain, and he hesitated and said, "The emperor will still listen to Lord Hou, right?" The emperor had ordered Hou Sui to be removed from his post as superintendent, and sent Jinyi Wei to bring him back to Beijing. But the emperor rewarded the first official of Kaifeng and the counselor officials around Hou Sui at the same time, and I don't know if the emperor will really hold Hou Sui accountable in the end. ”

Seeing that his wife was speechless, He Baodao first relieved: "Hou Xun is still locked up in the prison, maybe tomorrow the emperor will give him death." After speaking, He Baodao sighed again: "In the end, Inspector Hou is still meritorious, without Inspector Hou, where will we have time to revive the new army?" ”

At present, the new army of the Beijing Division has been expanded into 13 battalions plus direct guards, and each battalion will theoretically have 5,000 men, totaling nearly 70,000 officers and men, and about 55,000 have been trained. Distress letters from Huguang poured in like a tide, claiming that Li Zicheng and Xu Ping had brought a million troops to attack, and Zhendonghou expressed his willingness to take the new army south along the canal at any time and attack it head-on before the invasion army.

However, there was general opposition to this within the New Army, and He Baodao clearly disagreed, complaining to his wife: "Ninety percent of the New Army are northerners, what should I do if I don't adapt to the water and soil in the south?" ”

"It's okay in Fujian, it's not like we haven't been there," Mrs. He was a little puzzled by He Baodao's caution.

"It's not to rush to help Fujian, but Huguang, Huguang!" He Baodao suddenly started a fire for no reason, and Mrs. He closed her mouth when she saw this.

……

"The fire camp is making trouble again?" Zhao Slowxiong shouted in Jin Qiude's tent: "Why didn't you know anything in advance? ”

"Of course I don't know, it's the generals' instructions, how could they tell me." Jin Qiude felt that the new army had become more and more disobedient to the command, and this time the new army mutinied and made trouble, expressing its reluctance to go south to reinforce Huguang, which made the cabinet very happy, and many in the cabinet were reluctant to send the new army to the south, for fear that Li Zicheng would kill a horse gun.

"The cabinet plans to vote for the Funing Army to go north to support Huguang, and at the same time, the Zhaoqing Army also sets off together." Zhao Slowxiong revealed a piece of news that he just found out today: "Master Hou thinks you can agree? ”

"Oh? I really don't know that there are still available soldiers in the Funing Army and the Zhaoqing Army, "Yang Zhiyuan has always been in charge of the affairs in the south, and Shi Ce and Bao Bowen are similar to Yang Zhiyuan, they are both Zhendonghou's sworn friends, otherwise Zhendonghou would not have left these people in the southern base area: "The boss of the He family doesn't know what he's doing, this battle has been fought for three years, and he hasn't even gone back to Fujian." ”

"There are indeed no available soldiers in the two towns, but what the lord means is that you might as well Chen Bingjiangxi to prevent the army from crossing Huguang, the sailors of Funing have already selected suitable boats to enter the Yangtze River, and the sailors in the camp will naturally not go too deep." The Marquis of Zhendong had already ordered Shi Ce to prepare to set off, and he would control Zheng Zhilong and Liu Xiang in a unified manner.

"Do these water ghosts know how to fight on land?"

"I didn't want to fight in the first place, but the adults instructed Shi Ce to accept it when he saw it." Zhao Slowxiong is most worried about not the south, but the north: "The adults are going to gather the old brothers to have a good talk, if they still don't know what to do, then they have to be tied up." ”

"When are you going to have a showdown with them?" Because the following did not cooperate, Jin Qiude had to keep his tone tight, and he couldn't reveal his intention to abandon the Jingshi and flee at all.

"After breaking into the camp and killing the horse pistol, if the military situation is urgent, the emperor will definitely let the adults lead the troops to resist the enemy," Zhao Slowxiong estimated that if the camp broke into Shanxi or Shandong, this order would almost be given: "When the time comes, the adults will leave with the army, and if anyone else is not satisfied, let the direct guards tie them up first and tie them to Nanjing." ”

"That's all it takes."

……

After Li Zicheng decided to go south to Huguang, almost every soldier in Henan was willing to leave his homeland from now on and follow King Chuang on an unknown journey.

In July, after resting for a while in Xiangcheng, which had just been conquered, the army marched south along the official road, passing through Nanyang and Xinye, and soon approached Xiangyang Mansion, an important town in the north of Huguang, which was backed by the Han River and was the gateway to Huguang. On the 5th, after Li Dingguo, who was in the vanguard, seized Gucheng located in the upper reaches of Xiangyang, he got the news that not only the Chu army was in front of him, but also the Funing army that had just been transferred from Fujian.

Soon Li Dingguo found out that the Funing Army that came to reinforce Huguang was led by Zheng Zhilong and Liu Xiang, and Li Dingguo was a little puzzled after finding out their resumes, whether Zheng Zhilong or Liu Xiang were the generals of the Funing Army before, this was the first time they led the army to fight. As for why two naval generals were sent to lead the Funing Army to Zengyuan Huguang

Although he was not very clear about the crude oil inside, after Li Dingguo determined that the 40,000 Funing troops were coming in a hurry, he immediately ordered the whole battalion to be on alert, and at the same time reduced all the troops to the newly occupied Gucheng County. When the Funing army arrived at the outskirts of Gucheng, Li Dingguo issued an order that made his subordinates feel inexplicable. That is, to block all the four gates of the valley city with stones.

After hearing this ridiculous order, Li Dingguo's subordinates were all taken aback, and now located near Gucheng was the Sanxi Battalion under Li Dingguo's command, with a total of more than 15,000 officers and soldiers in the three battalions, although they were at a disadvantage compared to the Funing Army, they were not without the ability to defend. A staff officer suggested to Li Dingguo: "General, the officers and soldiers of Funing are coming in a hurry, obviously wishful thinking is to take advantage of the arrival of King Chuang and the main force of the general to defeat us first, but we may not be able to fight, the general can arrive within ten days, as long as we resist along the outskirts of the city, it is not difficult to hold on for ten days." It is okay for the general to order all the exits from the city, but if we retreat into the city and block all the four gates of Guanghua, then we will lose any possibility of counterattacking the officers and soldiers, and the officers and soldiers can calmly besiege us. ”

Li Dingguo smiled slyly and said: "The city guard record of the Song Dynasty has a saying: the wall is expensive and low, and the door is expensive. If there is no counterattack, it will be difficult to hold on, and I have been fighting for so many years, will I not understand such a simple truth? Execute the command! ”

Seeing this, the staff officers saw Li Dingguo's resolute attitude, so they went to carry out his order with full suspicion.

Soon, Zheng Zhilong, who was full of confidence in the victory of the battle, arrived near Gucheng, and next to him was Liu Xiang with a sad face: "Shi Shuai said that you are not allowed to fight with the camp, why don't you listen?" ”

Seeing this, Zheng Zhilong hurriedly led the Funing army into Huguang, and hit the local autumn breeze along the way, and also boasted to Liu Xiang: "I have been in the army for 20 years, and I am so poor that I have forgotten what gold and silver look like, and this time I can be regarded as rich." ”

Liu Xiang parked the Zhaoqing army at the junction of Jiangxi and Huguang, and he took his personal guards to follow the Funing army north, and repeatedly tried to persuade Zheng Zhilong to go back, but the latter was unmoved, but desperately mobilized Liu Xiang: "Twenty years, we have never shown our faces in front of the marshal, this time we have to make a good contribution." ”

Shi Shuai said......"

"Shi Shuai is old, twilight!" Zheng Zhilong didn't care, his son Zheng Chenggong commanded the elite of the Fujian and Guangdong Naval Divisions had entered the Yangtze River, dodging the reef along the way and going upstream, and now near the Han River, many of these naval divisions were giant ships equipped with a large number of artillery: "We have a naval division, fighting along the river, where is our opponent in the camp?" ”

"We've never fought a land war." Liu Xiang was still feeling empty.

"Didn't you fight in Nanyang?"

"That's more bullying less!" Liu Xiang commanded the sailors to fight overseas, but the scale was much smaller, usually hundreds or thousands of battles, if there were two or three thousand troops, it would be a great battle.

"Now it's also bullying less with more!" Zheng Zhilong's plan is very simple, that is, to overwhelm the opponent with a large number of artillery: "Huguang always gives the marshal a look, if we include Huguang in the marshal's territory this time, what do you say the marshal will reward us?" In the future, when the marshal turns his back on the north and faces the south, he will reward me as a king and governor of Nanyang. ”

"Shh Liu Xiang hurriedly raised a finger: "Whisper!" ”

"There is no one around," Zheng Zhilong has been doing black work for Zhendonghou all these years, and has a lot of understanding of Zhendonghou's hidden strength under the water, and over time he also saw some signs, and felt that most of the Zhendonghou who was fighting behind his back had a heart of disobedience: "In the future, it will be the king or the wait, and we have to rely on ourselves to fight for it." ”

After learning that Li Dingguo of Gucheng blocked all the four gates, Zheng Zhilong was even more overjoyed, and laughed at Liu Xiang: "I have long said that breaking into the camp is a rabble, and you are always blindly worried, they are not even as good as overseas barbarians." ”

Since this is the case, Zheng Zhilong did not even wait for the water division, and immediately urged the Funing army to prepare for the attack.

Although he was also very confident in the combat effectiveness of the Funing Army, Liu Xiang seemed more cautious than Zheng Zhilong, and said: "The new army battalions that Hou Ye trained in the north, although they are newly formed troops, they are also organized and trained according to the consistent methods of our Funing Army, and the equipment is not under our Funing Army, but several sorties have been defeated by the camp, this Li thief is also a bandit who is used to fighting, how could he be stupid enough to block the city gate?" ”

"That's because Hou Ye left a hand, isn't Shi Shuai always angry with the new army? It seems that they are having trouble with the marshal," Zheng Zhilong is good at observing words and feelings, although no one has told him, but he guessed some contradictions in the north: "We are the descendants of the old man Hou Ye, look at our cannons, and we are scared of thieves." ”

"Shi Shuai said that he would accept it when he saw it."

"Understand, understand, once the thieves understand that Huguang is ours, and Jiangxi is something they can't afford to provoke, I won't beat them." Zheng Zhilong, who was determined to prove that he was an all-rounder on land and water, ordered to dig trenches in accordance with daily regulations and approach the walls of Gucheng from multiple directions.

……

The Funing army outside the city was busy digging trenches, while Li Dingguo was leisurely roaming around the city to recuperate. Under the command of Zheng Zhilong, the Funing army dug trenches for three days in a row, and soon several places were close to the city wall.

During this period, Zheng Zhilong tried every possible way to investigate, but there was no news from the city: "No wonder, the city gates are blocked by thieves, and our people can't get out." ”

According to the intelligence, Xu Ping's troops were coming, and Zheng Zhilong ordered the soldiers to be paid double salaries, urging them to rush to work day and night to dig trenches. Since entering Huguang, in addition to making great contributions, Zheng Zhilong finally has the opportunity to blackmail the place, he has made a lot of money these days, anyway, he doesn't feel distressed when he spends the money for nothing: "When I eliminate the thief Li Dingguo, I should stabilize my defense, let Xu Ping retreat safely, he is the marshal's eldest disciple, and the marshal doesn't look good when I defeat him." ”

Seeing that the officers and soldiers surrounded Gucheng on all sides and began civil engineering operations, the subordinates who broke into the camp repeatedly advocated going out of the city to counterattack, but Li Dingguo never agreed, and when they saw that the Funing army began to dig a longitudinal trench, Li Dingguo's subordinates were about to be unable to bear it: "My lord, once this longitudinal trench is dug, they will drag the cannon in to bombard us." ”

Li Dingguo didn't seem nervous at all, went to the city to look around, and then paced back to the official residence to rest, as if no one was fine.

As soon as the sun set, Li Dingguo urgently summoned his generals and ordered to immediately open the stones blocking the city gate.

After understanding that he was about to launch a counterattack, the commander of the Sanxi Battalion immediately applauded, and only then did Li Dingguo explain his decision a few days ago: "I have long expected that the officers and soldiers will be in a hurry to eat us, and blocking the city gate is to deliberately paralyze the officers and soldiers, so that the officers and soldiers think that I am also a general who is nothing more than that." We have just taken Gucheng and it is too late to clear it, there are so many people in the city, there are a mixture of fish and dragons, it is inevitable that there is no detailed work of officers and soldiers, and it is easy to leak the news if you are eager to counterattack, and block the city gate so that these fine works cannot communicate with the officers and soldiers outside the city. Today, we are going to take the officers and men by surprise. ”

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