A few days later.

On the first day of September, Huanggang County.

The original Huangzhou prefect's yamen has changed a lot now. The front hall is dilapidated, the wall collapsed and no one took care of it, but the back house was beautifully decorated.

It is said that it is decoration, but in fact, it is not accurate, because the putty on the wall is too lazy to scrape again, but the wall is covered with various silk satin and cloth curtains. Originally, the treasures and displays of the wealthy families in the city were moved to the backyard of the government and piled up indiscriminately.

The one who lives in the palace now is Liu Xiyao, the thief leader known as the "King of the World".

Liu Xiyao is also from Shaanxi, and the leaders of the Fifth Battalion of the Revolution and many other thieves are from Shaanxi.

After many years of wandering, he has formed a life style that is at ease with what he encounters. No matter what city he occupied or what mansion he acquired, he would use it as a big tent in the barracks, ready to throw it away at any time.

Since it is not regarded as its own permanent industry, it is not possible to talk about hard decoration. Isn't it nice to use everything when you move it and burn it when you move it away?

In recent days, Liu Xiyao's mood has not been very happy, and he can't say that he is not happy. So much so that the people around him were cautious, because there were already several horses who had done the wrong thing, and they were whipped by Liu Xiyao.

Everyone also knew in their hearts that Liu Dashuai was uneasy because he had sent a fine work to Qizhou before, but then there was no news.

But there is still a trace of thought in my heart, and I have always refused to accept the reality until I finally believe it.

"Hu Jin's killing talent, whether he succeeds or not, he doesn't send someone back to report the news, it's really a delay in the fighter! If everything goes well, let's order troops to kill the door one day earlier, earn the city, and take away Shen Lin's bird property, but it's very beautiful. ”

At this moment, it was the meal, Liu Xiyao was munching on the case in the back house of the mansion, while thinking angrily, venting all his frustration on the big pig's trotters in his hand.

But today's pig's trotters are in a hurry, and the cook is not very bad, he just bites the tendon of the hoof, and it is itchy between his teeth, which is very uncomfortable.

Just as Liu Xiyao wanted to touch the knife and scold and let people punish the cook, suddenly a cronie outside stumbled in and invisibly saved the cook's life.

"Your Majesty, it's not good! One of the fine works sent to Qizhou escaped back. ”

Liu Xiyao was clueless when he heard this, and first flashed a scabbard: "Can you speak?" Shocked, it's good to be back! ”

The cronies were calmed down a bit, and then they said in detail: "No, the king, they were found out and fled back, Hu Jin and several of them were found out and chopped by the Shen Dog Official!" Only one sentry fled back, and it was a righteous act to secretly bring back the heads of the brothers who had been demonstrated. ”

Liu Xiyao was furious: "What? This Shen Dog official is brave enough, when I break the county seat of Qizhou, I have to divide his body! He will chop up as many pieces as he kills my brothers. ”

After being angry, he is also a thief, and he is still a bit of a city. calmed down, and immediately summoned Liu San, who had fled back, to inquire about the situation carefully.

Fortunately, Shen Shuren didn't let Liu San do anything to lure the enemy, Liu San thought that according to Lord Shen's words, it was the safest, so he acted completely according to the plan.

“…… The king, the thief was extremely cruel and suspicious, and killed the squires who resisted his grain requisition when he was in the water, but he bought the hearts of the poor people and pulled people to serve as soldiers. Even Yuan Jixian's nephew was killed by him in the name of the king, and he framed you for the king!

Just because he would rather indulge in vain and kill innocents indiscriminately, our brother is obviously very cautious, but he is still found out, and people with unknown household registration and origin cannot be soldiers at all in Shen Thief! ”

Liu Xiyao has no doubts about these points at all, because the characteristics of indiscriminate killing of innocents and suspicion make him feel very substitutional, and he feels that the person in the top position should be like this.

The dog civil officials he met originally were cowardly and face-loving, but in his opinion, they were perverted.

"Although this Shen Dog Official is damned, he is also a ruthless person, which is quite appetizing to this king." Liu Xiyao actually nodded, and then chased after him and asked, "Then how did you escape?" ”

Liu San said according to the original plan, only saying that there were gentry who dared to be angry with Shen Shuren, so he wanted to leave a way back, but he was afraid that Liu Xiyao would kill the rich and liquidate if he went, so he wanted to explore the way first.

Of course, Liu Xiyao will not object to this, not that he is rash, but even if this condition is fake, he has no loss if he agrees, and if it is true, it is also a business, no matter how you look at it, it will not lose.

He immediately said with a look of arrogance: "What's so difficult about this? This king made an oath to the Yuan family and the Xu family in Qizhou, if he dared to take the token, he would give him some tokens.

This king promised that as long as they were the internal response, they would attack Qizhou and Qishui in the future, and would never rob their family's property, and they could also divide the property they had stolen by burning and killing others, and divide them into three! ”

When the word Sancheng was first spoken, Liu Xiyao still regretted it for a moment in his heart, as if the offer was too bold.

But it was only for a moment, and then calm quickly returned - if he could really break the city, it was not up to him to have the final say? When the time comes, give a little less, will those gentry still dare to disagree?

I don't plan to fulfill my promises, so why not blow it up, let's see how the other party reacts.

After instructing the surrender policy, Liu Xiyao asked some more about the military situation: "Shen Gouguan's side, how is the armament now, can the soldiers have the will to fight, our army is now dispatching, can the people turn against him?" ”

Although Liu San and the others failed to succeed in undercover and win the city gate in the future, they should have seen a lot of information after being mixed in Shen Shuren's army for a few days, which is somewhat useful.

When Liu San heard the king ask, he was also slightly scared in his heart: this was not the task he had given when he sent them, the original task was just to lurk and earn money when the time came.

But Lord Shen actually thought that Liu Xiyao would inevitably ask him about the military situation, and also taught him how to deal with it......

"After you go back, Liu Xiyao will definitely ask about the information about our armament war. If you tell the truth, he will attack at once, and you will be your guide at that time, and when the sword will have no eyes, I will be sure to destroy it, and you will not escape death.

If you tell Liu Xiyao that our army still has a batch of armaments that have not yet arrived, and you will seduce him to be greedy for money and delay the attack, you will have time to get out slowly, or pretend to be sick, or flee. If you want to live or die, you can do it yourself. ”

These words were analyzed by Shen Shuren before Liu San was released.

At this moment, the question asked by Liu Xiyao was closely related to Shen Shuren's expectations, and it was difficult for Liu San not to recall these warnings.

"Indeed, if the king were to be seduced to send troops immediately, I would definitely be asked to be my guide and be caught in the middle. was either killed by the official army, or was beheaded by the king after goofing. It's better to persuade the king to fight slowly, and give yourself a good time to slowly find a time to slip away......"

After making up his mind, Liu Sanyi gritted his teeth and said according to the lines explained: "King, although the Shen Dog official is brutal, because he suppressed the gentry to reduce the rent of the people, he was indeed quite supported by the ignorant people, and the morale of the newly recruited regiment was high.

As for weapons and armaments, the Shen Dog Officer heard that it was the home of a wealthy man in Suzhou, and when he came, he brought a lot of swords, guns and arrows, and there should be no shortage of defending the city.

Other than that...... The gentry in the city inquired and said that it was Shen Gouguan who found out that the king had sent a detailed work, and became more and more nervous, and wrote back to Suzhou to ask his father, who was the head of the household, to bring firearms, ordnance, and Hongyi goods worth one million taels to Huangzhou. ”

When Liu Xiyao heard this, he raised his eyebrows and immediately interrupted: "Wait, that Shen Gouguan is so rich?" Can you casually let someone send a million taels worth of Hongyi weapons? Does he still have a way to smuggle with foreign countries? ”

Liu San had a rare opportunity to show off, and naturally said, "Don't you know, king? I heard that the Shen Gou official family is the richest man in Suzhou, and half of the Ming Dynasty maritime merchants are all from his family, and they are ruled by dividing the north and south from the Zheng family in Fujian. I heard that this Shen Dog official is here to take money and spend credit, so that he can be promoted quickly. ”

So rich?!

Liu Xiyao's eyes were red.

After all, he was a thief, and he was not very well-informed at first. I only knew that Shen Shuren was rich, but I still didn't expect to be rich to this extent.

Poverty limits his imagination.

Suzhou, really is an unimaginable paradise and rich land, the people in that place are so hateful, why should we Shaanxi people be poor?

Liu Xiyao only felt that the anger in his chest was burning, this thief was too unfair to allocate resources.

A plan also slowly took shape in his chest with anger: since Shen Gouguan's soldiers were temporarily demoralized and their ordnance was sufficient, and a hasty attack might not be beneficial, it was better to delay the entry of the autumn grain harvest according to the original plan, so that Shen Gouguan would not be afraid of defending the city.

On the other hand, since I know that when dealing with Shen Gouguan, this vision cannot be limited to the acre and three points of land in Huangzhou, but must focus on the foreign aid of the entire Great Tomorrow.

Then, it became important to send scouts to patrol along the north bank of the Yangtze River, along the Xishui and Qishui estuaries to search for the enemy's possible support convoy in the future.

It is definitely not possible to let Shen Gouguan get the overseas ordnance he needs smoothly, so that it will be difficult to attack the city in the future.

And they should take advantage of the fact that after their material fleet entered Qishui and before they reached the county seat of Qizhou, they sent a small number of cavalry to intercept it, and then the army chased after it and surrounded it, and robbed the supplies!

This is the most perfect "encirclement and reinforcement", not to mention that the "aid" is still in the nature of a grain and grass baggage team, which is too cool.

Liu Xiyao has been a thief for ten years, and he has never eaten such fat meat!

Moreover, as long as the opponent's military quartermaster is intercepted, he is not afraid that Shen Shuren will not open the city gate to fight in the field! When the time comes, the shortcomings of the rebels' lack of the ability to attack the city can also be avoided!

No matter how you look at it, you will not lose money by doing a good job of reconnaissance work and preparing for war first.

The more Liu Xiyao thought about it, the more excited he became: "The more I ordered to send out all the cavalry in the army, divide them into small teams to search deep into the enemy territory along the banks of the Yangtze River, and if I find that there is a large fleet on the river that wants to turn into Xishui and Qishui, I will immediately report and organize interception."

However, don't fall in love with war, if Shen Gouguan finds out about our cavalry, dare to go out of the city to expel him, don't fall in love with them, just retreat, or seduce, this king will send a large army to fight with him in the field and eliminate Shen Gouguan with one drum! ”

……

Liu Xiyaojun immediately received this combat phalanx and began to act.

Shen Shuren's side also successfully relied on this non-existent "foreign aid arms fleet" to drag the enemy for another period of time, at least for more than half a month.

Counting the days, taking the Yangtze River waterway from Suzhou to Huangzhou on the border of Henan and Anhui will not be close to 20 days.

It wasn't until at least twenty days later, when Shen Shuren's material fleet didn't come, that Liu Xiyao realized that he had been fooled.

Moreover, as long as Shen Shuren found that Liu Xiyao's cavalry was moving, he could deduce that Liu Xiyao was waiting for the fleet.

Then, even if there was no fleet, Shen Shuren could turn one out for him.

It's a big deal that when the fleet finally arrived at Qishui, he was a little more vigilant, and as soon as he saw Liu Xiyao's cavalry scout troops intercepting it, he immediately gave up reinforcements and the young master turned around and ran.

Liu Xiyao didn't know what was on the boat, so he could borrow arrows from a straw boat.