In order to find out the details of the Iron Cliff Fortress and find a plan to attack the city, I gave up my rest time, used Huairou tactics to win the favor of the captives, and obtained a lot of information from an old white-bearded farmer surnamed Peng.

Among them, the issue of water shortage in the city has attracted my attention. But Lao Peng refused to answer, so I could only go to the ghost slave pile to think of a way.

Finally, I found a ghost slave in a corner. It was a male ghost, with a thin body, and in addition to the ghost rope tied to his hands, he actually wore a pair of shackles on his ankles. Obviously, this pair of shackles could not have been put on by the sergeant of the night march, but it was already there.

It didn't seem to be aware of my presence at all, and kept its head down and sighed silently. It wasn't until I walked up to it and stayed long enough that it caught its attention and looked up at me. Its face was covered in blood, and its clothes were tattered and bruised. Obviously, this is a ghost slave who has made a mistake and has been tortured by Iron Cliff Castle before.

I ordered Wang Qi to take this ghost slave out and bring it directly into my tent.

"What did you do to be tortured like this?" I asked it as soon as I entered it.

But the ghost slave held his head high, and didn't want to deal with me at all.

Wang Qi was furious when he saw it, raised the rope in his hand, and scolded: "The guy who doesn't know how to lift! The whip in Iron Cliff didn't make you comfortable, and you came here to find a whip, didn't you? ”

I resisted Wang Qi's impulse and patiently asked again.

But the ghost slave still looked very arrogant, and sneered: "Don't pretend to be a good person there, I know what you're thinking!" ”

"Oh, tell me, what was I thinking?" I'm getting more and more interested in it.

"You want me to be a traitor and betray Iron Cliff Castle!"

"Haha! You were tortured like this by Iron Cliff Castle, do you still have to work for it? ”

"My life is long gone, and I can't sell it if I want to!"

"Human life is gone, but ghost life is still there." I continued, "I promise you, as long as you answer my questions honestly, at least I can guarantee that you won't have to suffer anymore!" ”

"Hmph, don't suffer?" The ghost slave sneered again and asked, "Let me ask you first, what should you do with us ghost slaves after you capture the Iron Cliff Fort?" Will you let us go, or will you continue to enslave us? ”

I was dumbfounded. There must be more than a thousand ghost slaves in the fort, and it is absolutely impossible for me to promise to release them all. Moreover, the Difu didn't want to completely capture and occupy the Iron Cliff Fort, but just wanted to force Li Hongtai to submit. Once the negotiation is successful, it is likely that the 1,000 ghost slaves currently captured will be returned to Iron Cliff in exchange.

When the ghost slave saw that I hesitated, he thought that he had asked me, so he sneered and said, "Look, I guessed right, right? Who doesn't know how to write a blank check! ”

I said, "I really don't dare to guarantee the other ghost slaves, but if it's just you, I can still call the shots." As long as the information you provide is true, I promise to give you freedom right away! ”

"I don't want to be free, I want to go to the underworld to reincarnate immediately!" Unexpectedly, the ghost slave actually put forward such a condition, "I don't want to be a ghost anymore, the sooner I reincarnate, the better!" ”

I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, nodded and agreed, "Yes, I can do this request." ”

"Promises alone won't work. I want you to swear in the name of the most beloved person before I can trust you! I didn't want the ghost slave to insist on it.

"Bold! What are you that dare to talk to our lieutenant like that? Wang Qi couldn't listen anymore, and scolded fiercely. This kid is very loyal to me, but sometimes he is too "enthusiastic".

I had no choice but to let him go out and avoid it first, and leave me alone to interrogate this ghost slave alone.

"Well, I can swear. It's not a very difficult requirement to achieve, and I don't have to lie to you. I said. Immediately, I made an oath in the name of Liu Han, promising that as long as this ghost slave helped me capture the Iron Cliff Fort, I would take it back to the underworld and arrange for it to line up on the Huangquan Road to reincarnate.

After swearing, the ghost minion finally nodded and said with satisfaction, "Well, that's good! I'm not afraid to tell you that I was a psychiatrist when I was alive. The fact that you swore with a gentle and firm look in your eyes tells me that you do have your beloved in mind when you swear. This proves that you are honest. ”

I couldn't stop laughing!

It turned out that it insisted that I swear that there was such a layer of meaning in it!

However, it is estimated that this ghost was punished by Iron Cliff Fort because he usually thinks he is too smart and noble, and he is unwilling to be enslaved. It's also fortunate that it met such a patient person as me, otherwise other Yin Soldier officers would have kicked it over!

"Can you answer my question now?" I asked.

"Ask, as long as I know it, I will answer it truthfully!"

"How many people are there in Iron Cliff?"

"About eight hundred, one hundred have been detained by you, and there are seven hundred left."

"How many defenders are there?"

"Less than two hundred. But there will definitely be a lot of ghost slaves who will be pulled by them to serve as defenders. ”

"What is the total number of ghost slaves? How many are above the Grey Ghosts? ”

"The total number of ghost slaves in the castle is about five thousand, and less than half of them are above the gray ghosts."

With 200 defenders and more than 2,000 ghost soldiers, if we face the night tour rear army in the field, we will certainly win. But now that the other side has a dangerous situation to defend, with such a force, it can completely withstand the strong attack of our thousand yin army. Moreover, 5,000 ghost slaves can go without drinking water, and the use of wartime supply restrictions will not affect the consumption of drinking water.

However, it answered the first few questions very simply, which made me feel confident and bold to ask the most critical and most important question that I was most concerned about.

"How many living water sources are there in the fort?"

"There's only one deep shaft, right inside the mine. Moreover, the potholes are crooked and pitted, and it is not easy to get water, so it needs to be carried up from the ground by ghost slaves bucket by bucket. ”

"How can one well be enough for 800 living people?" I asked.

"It's not enough, unless you keep carrying water out. And it can only be used for people to drink, not to take a bath and wash clothes. The ghost slave replied without hesitation, and added, "Therefore, it is necessary to drive the big snails from the well here to carry water to the fort every day, and at the same time build a large cistern in the fort to store water. ”

"What is the capacity of the cistern?"

"I have estimated that the reservoir is about 10 meters long and wide and 3 meters high, and when it is full, it can hold about 300 tons of water. But it's rare to fill up, especially if you come so suddenly that they don't have time to store water. It would be nice to have half of it now! ”

"Hmm." I am satisfied with such an answer. According to its description, there is indeed a shortage of water in the Iron Cliff Fort, the question is to what extent is the shortage, and how long can the people inside last?

"How's the heart of the people in the fort? Do they all support Li Hongtai? "I struck while the iron was hot and moved on to ask some other questions.

"There is a strict hierarchy in the Iron Cliff Fort, and the power is in the hands of the castle lord Li Hongtai's family. Li Hongtai is a businessman, interests first, mean and unkind. In addition to his henchmen and generals, the craftsmen, common people and ghost slaves at the bottom all complained. ”

"Do these disgruntled people and ghosts have the courage to resist Li Hongtai?"

"Not usually, not now." "But if you put enough pressure on you, someone will openly disagree." ”

That's right, it's really a breakthrough point that can be exploited!

You must know that the reason why Iron Cliff Fort has been able to develop so far is completely supported by commercial success. Now after being besieged by the Yin army, the Iron Cliff Fort has cut off trade routes, has no income, and coupled with the lack of water, all kinds of dissatisfied voices will gradually emerge. Originally, I thought that the Yin Army was not suitable for a protracted battle with the Iron Cliff Fort, but after such an analysis, I came to the exact opposite conclusion.

I put the ghost slave in my bag for the time being, and the next day I ran to Gan Sheng to report my discovery. I suggested that he treat the captives well, give them food and drink, and at the same time publicize the policies of the underworld, and tell them that the underworld does not have to eradicate the Iron Cliff Fort, but that Li Hongtai has gone too far and disrespected the king of Yama. As long as Li Hongtai is willing to admit his mistake and bow his head, the Yin army can not move and withdraw immediately!

Of course, in the end, we have to release all those living captives back to Iron Cliff Fort to show the goodwill and sincerity of the Yin Army. In fact, the purpose of this is to further increase the consumption of drinking water in the fort and make the shortage of water in the fort worse.

Moreover, the captives who were released back would definitely be grateful to the Yin Army for not killing, but they were very dissatisfied with Li Hongtai's death and arrogant attitude, which may evolve into a small variable.

This strategy of mine can no longer be called a conspiracy, but a clear conspiracy. Even if Li Hongtai can see what we are thinking, he is probably helpless!

As for the problem of food shortage in the Yin army, it is not impossible to solve it. After the night tour, the army's current military rations can last for three months, and there is another small Yin City about twenty days away from Iron Cliff Fort. If there is really a need, Wang Song can go there first to purchase a batch of military rations and come back to replenish it. As long as we can take the Iron Cliff Fort, the granary inside is completely enough for us to replenish the grain and grass for the return trip.

Gan Sheng was overjoyed and fully adopted my opinion. From then on, he calmly led the night tour rear army to continue to hold the bridgehead opposite the Iron Cliff Fort, only besieged but not attacked, and only sent people to the bridgehead every day to shout at the fort to carry out psychological warfare. The other caravans that came to purchase weapons from Yincheng were all driven back by us, and told them that they were not allowed to do business with Iron Cliff Fort in the future without the permission of the prefecture.

In this way, it took more than a month, and just when Wang Song was ready to purchase military rations, Li Hongtai finally couldn't resist the pressure and sent someone out to negotiate.