"You don't mean that Shen Gouguan is just a sour and rotten literati! Light will drop the book bag and never fought! I have been fighting for half my life, and I actually lost in the hands of this kind of goods, and when I meet brothers from other battalions in the future, what face will I have to look up and be a man! ”

After withdrawing to the camp, the more Liu Xiyao thought about it, the more angry he became, and he couldn't help but drink several pots of wine snatched from the nearby rich family, and scolded all his subordinates before he could be considered angry.

After calming down, he couldn't help but put his fingers in his messy hair, scratched wildly, and asked dejectedly, "How many brothers are left in our army?" ”

Next to him, a general named Liu Sandao, who was accepted as a righteous son by Liu Xiyao, replied in horror: "Father, there are ...... There were more than 8,000 people, but there were more than 6,000 people who could continue the battle with weapons, and at least more than 1,000 brothers were wounded.

Today's battle is really too cunning for Shen Gouguan, if it weren't for the fact that the officers and soldiers hung our appetite several times, so that our army mistakenly thought that we would be able to overcome all the achievements if we worked harder, we would not have been able to fight for so long, and the casualties would be so miserable, alas. ”

In normal ancient wars, especially thieves, one-tenth of the casualties would definitely be withdrawn, and the generals would not be able to suppress them.

In today's battle, thousands of people were killed in direct battle alone, and there were about a similar number of seriously wounded, who could not retreat with them, so they could only leave the officers and soldiers to clean up the battlefield, resulting in a total permanent loss of more than 2,000 on the thief's side.

was able to fight for so long and fight so resolutely, all of which were caused by Liu Xiyao himself. He repeatedly boosted morale and made the officers and men of the whole army misjudge that "if you hold on one more support, you will be prosperous and rich, and if you give up now, you will die in vain."

Like a gambler who tasted the sweetness first, and then slowly lost the red eye, he was gradually seduced and raised by the opponent's exquisite psychological account design, and finally mixed into this step.

Liu Xiyao's face was pale, and the silence in the big tent was terrifying, no one dared to suggest the next battle plan, for fear that he would be angry in the future after making a mistake in decision-making, and some were worried about being suspicious of the king-

When Shen Gouguan was defeated and retreated today, he made people shout a lot of discordant words in the city, and it was not a good thing if anyone was too active at this time.

Although Liu Xiyao doesn't read, he still knows a little bit about the sophistication of human feelings and the skills of control, and he can also detect abnormalities from everyone's silence.

He knew that he couldn't be more serious at this time, otherwise the army would have to mutiny due to successive defeats. After pondering again and again, Liu Xiyao said very responsibly:

"Well, victory and defeat are common things in soldiers, and today's defeat is mainly due to the king, so you don't have to worry. This king also figured it out, and now there are only more than 6,000 living forces left, and it is absolutely impossible to attack the city again.

Now we have only two ways left, either we will collect our troops and go back, or we will force the enemy out of the city and fight in the field! This king is not a person who is inconsiderate, and he will not let his sons die in vain! Therefore, in the past few days, find a way to force the enemy out of the city and fight in the field, if you can't do it, withdraw your troops! ”

"Father/King Wise!" The generals breathed a sigh of relief, secretly thinking that although the king had made a mistake, he still had a little responsibility at the last moment.

This level is at least stronger than those Yuan Shao-type leaders who love face and kill their own people and throw the pot.

"King, then how to force Shen Gouguan to go out of the city to fight? His strength is only half of our army at most, and it is unlikely that he will not defend the city, right? A general cautiously reminded that he was obviously more inclined to grab a handful and withdraw, not even wanting to try.

Liu Xiyao felt a little sad in his heart, he realized that after he made such a statement, his subordinates would definitely not work together and take the initiative to find a way to live. This is a solution that he can only think of on his own.

After chatting with his subordinates for a long time and talking about the experience of other thieves in previous years, Liu Xiyao finally reluctantly held back a trick:

"It's better for us to grab the grain and prepare to retreat after looting. On the other hand, he went deep into the counties in the southern part of Huangzhou, bypassed Jiancheng, and specifically asked the people to inquire about the local official eunuchs.

Arrest and kill those who are high-ranking officials in the DPRK and the families of those in Huangzhou, even if they are a little related to them! At least the threat to kill! Use this as a hostage to force Shen Shuren to fight! If he really doesn't eat this, forget it. ”

As soon as Liu Xiyao finished speaking, several generals looked at each other, and before they could react, only his righteous son Liu Sandao thought it was feasible, and hurriedly patted his ass:

"Wonderful! Father's move won the old spicy of the eight kings! Back then, the eight kings attacked Hefei and Fengyang, and wanted Chongzhen to kill the governor of Anlu and the governor of Fengyang, didn't they rely on digging Chongzhen's ancestral tomb in Fengyang!

Later, the eight kings tried again and again, and every time they wanted to kill the local guards and couldn't capture the city, they tried to kill the families of the important ministers of the surrounding court who had no time to take refuge in the city.

In this way, the court of the Dog Emperor Dog Official, who does not distinguish between right and wrong, will definitely be angry at the local officials' ineffective protection of the families of important members of the court, cowardice and war, and may be able to borrow the hand of the Dog Emperor in the future to cut off Shen Gouguan for questioning! ”

Zhang Xianzhong is a thief, when he forced the officials and troops to fight a decisive battle, and when the officials and soldiers refused to fight, they tried to kill the vassal king, dig up the grave, and kill the family members of the elders in the local area, and then let the local officials have to fight for fear of crime, this trick has been used several times.

In history, Zhang Xianzhong relied on this trick to kill the governor of Anlu and the governor of Fengyang in the eighth year of Chongzhen, and in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, he killed Yang Sichang by trapping the domain.

Liu Xiyao himself has never used these methods before, but he has never eaten pork and never seen a pig run? So it is normal for him to think of imitating Zhang Xianzhong.

Hope suddenly rose in the hearts of the generals, and they decided to take a final gamble and make preparations with both hands, while harvesting grain and preparing for flashing, and finally forcing a fight.

Anyway, it is impossible to attack the city, the morale has fallen into this bird, and if you attack the city again, you will be looking for death.

……

The thief's plan was decided, and in the next few days, everything went according to plan.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the implementation stage, all sorts of difficulties always arise.

For example, Huangzhou is a place with poor mountains and bad waters, and it is a remote land in the Dabie Mountains, and there are no reading seeds at all, and I haven't seen any of the elders of the Central Cabinet, Shangshu, and Shilang who are from Huangzhou, and they want to kill some weighty hostages to force Shen Shuren to fear crime and force them to fight, and the operability is really not very good.

Unable to find the family members of the important ministers of the court, Liu Xiyao had to retreat and find some relatives of the side branches of the important ministers of the court.

But in the end, I searched and searched, and only found some small characters.

Three days later, Liu Sandao roughly explored the scourge and came back to report: "Father, the child has searched the three nearby counties and mobilized the poor to identify the children of the official eunuchs.

In the end, I only found some side relatives of Yuan Jixian, the commander of Huguang Army, and the family members of Zuo Liangyu's two concubines in Wuchang on the other side - these two concubines may not be the most favored around Zuo Liangyu, but because Zuo Liangyu moved to Wuchang, the family members are local.

In addition, the hostages found are even less valuable, and most of them are the concubines and family members of officials at the level of governors and waiters, and the situation is the same as that of Zuo Liangyu's family, and they really can't find important people. ”

The wives of high-ranking officials are all married by large families, and they rarely appear in poor rural areas. The concubine is not particular, there may be anywhere.

Liu Xiyao was also helpless: "That's it, tie up all these families, send them to the west gate of Qizhou County early tomorrow morning, and let a few loud voices shout to the city, if Shen Gouguan refuses to go out of the city to fight, we will chop these people in public."

Let out the words and say that these people died because of the murder of Shen Gouguan! Let Yuan Jixian and Zuo Liangyu hate Shen Gouguan to death! Impeach him in front of the Dog Emperor to avoid war! Can't protect the place! ”

After Liu Sandao listened to the order, he was still a little jealous, and reminded:

"Father, Yuan Jixian is now a toothless tiger, so don't be afraid that he will hate us. That Zuo Liangyu is a ruthless person, and I heard that he is avoiding war now, just because he wants to threaten the court and force the court to reuse his benefactor.

This time, if we wipe out the family of his two concubines, he will hate us even more than being ruthless, right? What if we really provoke this Hades to be ruthless and cross the river to suppress us? ”

When Liu Xiyao heard this, the back of his neck really felt cold, indeed, Shen Gouguan is just a civil official, he can afford to offend, Zuo Liangyu's king of Hades is not easy to mess with. Its arrogance is not at all controllable by the emperor, and there is already a faint tendency to raise self-respect and become a warlord.

In such an apocalypse, the emperor is easy to offend, but the warlord can't afford to offend.

"Then when the time comes, I will only tie up the clansmen of Zuo Liangyu's concubine to the city gate to scare Shen Gouguan! If Officer Shen Dog agrees to our appointment, we will let them go. If you don't say yes...... Then only kill Yuan Jixian's side tribesmen, and Zuo Liangyu stays! ”

If you only kill the families of civil officials, not the families of warlords, then you will not be able to pull hatred.

The dog civil official is a fart, no matter how much he offends, he is not afraid of revenge, even if he is offended!

……

The next day was the third day of October, and five full days had passed since the siege of Qizhou that day.

Shen Shuren was in the city, seeing that Liu Xiyao had been standing still, and he was just continuing to build heavy siege equipment, treat wounded soldiers, and accumulate strength to hold back his big moves.

On this day, I finally saw Liu Xiyao's troops come out of the city and prepared some siege weapons in real pretenses, and then tied up a group of people and knelt down two hundred steps away from the city wall.

Then, Liu Xiyaojun's scolding hand began to shout: "Listen to the dog officer in the city!" This is the family of Yuan Jixian and Yuan Daotai who were arrested from Huangmei County! These are the family members of Mrs. Zuo Liangyu who was captured in Qishui County!

Shen Shuren! If you have a kind, go out of the city and fight to the death with my king!" If you don't plant them, you'll kill them! When the time comes, let Yuan Daotai and Zuo Liangyu hate you to the bone! Let Yao Shilang Cheng Shangshu impeach you in front of the Dog Emperor! When the time comes, you don't need me to kill you, the Dog Emperor will kill you! ”

The moment Liu Xiyao appeared, the head of the city was already like a great enemy, Zuo Zixiong personally led the troops to supervise the battle on the city tower, and several other officers who had performed well recently, even Zhang Huangyan, were also present.

Hearing such shameless words, Zuo Zixiong was also furious: "Despicable! It's shameless! Liu Xiyao, you can use this kind of indiscriminate means! ”

It's a pity that Zuo Zixiong doesn't have the right to make decisions, so he can only hurriedly ask people to invite Shen Shuren to come.

After about half an hour, Shen Shucai rushed from the county government to the city tower, got a general understanding of the situation, and then asked his subordinates to hand him a paper tube megaphone that had just been prepared (not plugged in, just relying on the shape to gather the sound)

"Liu Xiyao, don't hide your head and tail if you are a man, stand up if you dare to shout - I am Shen Shuren. If you don't dare to go out and answer me, you are raised by a eunuch! ”

Even with the blessing, Shen Shuren's voice was still not enough, and there were several scolders on the Ming army's side who helped shout with a paper tube megaphone.

The rogue army on the opposite side was in a commotion, obviously never heard a civilian official talk to the thief king so rudely.

Liu Xiyao was here to challenge today, of course he couldn't be intimidated, and at the moment he also rode his horse out of the crowd, but he didn't dare to enter the effective range of the firearms and crossbows at the head of the city, about two or three hundred paces, and relayed the conversation through a group of scolding players:

"Shen Dog Officer! If you don't want to be questioned by your dog court, go out of the city and fight with me! If you're not ready, let's make an appointment! You kill my son, and I will settle this account with you! ”

Shen Shuren laughed: "Your trick is also to deal with those rotten Confucians, it is useless to me." Xiang Yu looked for Liu Bang to fight alone, and put the prince Lu Pheasant on the pot, but he couldn't let Liu Bang show his head, you are a fart!

Yuan Jixian, Zuo Liangyu's family is not dead, it's my business! Lao Tzu was already at odds with them, Lao Tzu was very hard to backer in the court, and with Yang Ge Lao Bao me, I was still afraid of their impeachment? ! If you want to cook Eron, you will be lucky to share my piece of the pie! ”