After listening to Song Xiance's analysis of the official army's march routes and grain routes, Li Zicheng also felt that although the Henan Plain was vast, there were only a few rivers that could transport grain in a directional direction.

If the official army wants to advance to Kaifeng Mansion, no matter what, the grain road will not be able to bypass Yuncheng, so it is absolutely necessary to gather most of the main forces in Yuncheng.

After thinking about this, the follow-up arrangements are logical.

Li Zicheng's reckless background is already very executive, so he asked Song Xiance to write a reply to Zuo Liangyu that night.

The next morning, Hao Xiaozhong was summoned again, Enwei and Shi beat a few words, and then let one of his still clever henchmen follow Hao Xiaozhong back, make sure that the reply letter is personally delivered to Zuo Liangyu, and then observe Zuo Liangyu's reaction, the details of which are not to mention.

From Kaifeng to Nanyang, it will take at least two whole days to hurry up on horseback, not to mention that Li Zicheng's envoy does not need to be in a hurry, so five days later, on September 24, Li Zicheng's henchmen sent to deliver the letter returned to Kaifeng.

In the past five days, Li Zicheng has not been idle, and has been gradually pulling out troops to the south according to Song Xiance's suggestion, and gathering troops to the front line of Yuncheng at a rate of 20,000 or 30,000 people per day. This day is already the last group of people who need to be mobilized, and even Li Ziben himself is about to hit the road.

However, when the henchman who delivered the letter returned, he brought bad news that alerted Li Zicheng.

The henchman roughly said like this: "King, Song Junshi's letter, we personally handed it over to Zuo Liangyu, and after Zuo Liangyu read it, he was also very grateful to the king for being willing to live in peace with him, and also set up a banquet to entertain the villain."

However, just when we were about to leave Nanyang, we found something - that Shen Dog official also sent someone to contact Zuo Liangyu and also sent a letter. The messenger seemed to be a well-known scholar in Jiangnan, so we specially asked for the name secretly, as if it was Gu Yanwu.

After I learned about it, I turned back and questioned Zuo Liangyu, Zuo Liangyu looked a little embarrassed, but he swore that he had a grudge against Shen Gouguan and would never cooperate with Shen Gouguan. In the end, as if he was afraid that we would not believe us, he showed me the original copy of the letter.

The villain was afraid of fraud, and wanted to ask Zuo Liangyu for a letter and take it back to the king. Zuo Liangyu said, 'Who knows if you will take this letter and go to the court again to frame me.' We don't offend with King Chuang, and we can't leave evidence', so we only allowed people to copy a letter without the seal of Shen Gou's official seal, and let the villain bring it back - the copied letter is here, please look at it. ”

When Li Zicheng heard this, he frowned, and immediately took the copy of "Shen Shuren's Letter to Zuo Liangyu", browsed it, and then waved his hand to signal the envoy to retreat, and asked people to find Song Xiance.

Regarding Zuo Liangyu's confidential operation relayed by the envoy, Li Zicheng was not too suspicious. Because Zuo Liangyu contacted him, it really needed to be kept confidential, the letterhead was not even stamped, and the handwriting was not Zuo Liangyu's own, and it all relied on Hao Xiaozhong's witness to prove its authenticity.

In this way, when the messenger leaves, no physical evidence will be left behind. Even if the original is stolen or taken elsewhere for denunciation, it can be said that someone forged and framed -

And Li Zicheng's reply to Zuo Liangyu, Zuo Liangyu must have burned it directly after reading it, and he won't keep it at all, and it doesn't matter if it's authentic or copied.

The two sides seem to cooperate sincerely, but in fact, who is not 800 hearts and eyes to guard against each other. This is all as it should be, and it is not insincere.

However, Li Zicheng doesn't care about Zuo Liangyu's secrecy measures, which doesn't mean that he also doesn't care about the content of the letter.

After Song Xiance came, he carefully studied the "transcription of the letter sent by Shen Shuren to Zuo Liangyu through Gu Yanwu", and immediately felt that something was wrong.

Song Xiance pondered and said: "King, I think this letter is a little strange, but I can't say any clear evidence, so I don't dare to make a conclusion. ”

Li Zicheng's expression turned vigilant: "But it's okay to say it!" We'd rather be in vain! ”

Song Xiance said: "On this letter, Shen Shuren's reason for persuading Zuo Liangyu to give up his previous suspicions and continue to work for Chongzhen with one heart always feels a little out of the way.

As mentioned earlier, Shen Shuren treated Liu Guoneng and other generals equally, never rushed forward like other civilian officials, did not cherish the lives of soldiers, and did not treat martial artists as human beings.

It is said that this should be started later, recruiting Zuo Liangyu, saying that Zuo Liangyu can have long-term wealth as long as he gives up his past suspicions. However, this aspect of the letter came to an abrupt end, and the latter only said in general terms, 'There will be no long-term wealth and prosperity if you follow the king'.

There are also several places where the language and rhetoric vary greatly. Students are skeptical...... Is it Shen Shuren's original letter, the truth is more thorough, but there must be a comparison and insult to the king.

So when your envoy asked for Shen Thief's letter, Zuo Liangyu was afraid of angering the king, so he asked him to temporarily rewrite and transcribe a letter and delete those disrespectful words to you, the king? ”

Song Xiance pointed and pointed at several blunt points in the letter, and said that although Li Zicheng was uneducated, he was aware of the problem after a little bit of dialing.

This point, in fact, Zuo Liangyu can't be blamed for being negligent, it was really in a hurry, and Zuo Liangyu couldn't fake it too exquisitely if he wanted to—mainly because of Zuo Liangyu's literati staff, all added up, and the rhetoric couldn't be compared with Gu Yanwu.

The secret letter of Shen Shuren ghostwritten by Gu Yanwu, although it was just a pawn of the discord plan, Gu Yanwu also worked hard to write it and did his best, so the remarks were quite lethal, if Li Zicheng really saw it, he would definitely doubt his effect on Zuo Liangyu.

Zuo Liangyu had to delete and modify, but his subordinates were too rubbish, which made Song Xiance see that it was disjointed and abridged, and the style was not uniform. It's just too much of a difference in level.

But the problem is, in the autumn of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, can the world find a few literary heroes who can be compared with Gu Yanwu? Even if there is, with the reputation of a feudal town like Zuo Liangyu, how can it be possible to attract literati of this level, and there is no way to leave a flaw.

This little action, the original problem is not big, but Li Zicheng is also a suspicious person, after pondering for a while, he still feels that he can't fully trust Zuo Liangyu, so he angrily clapped and said:

"Sure enough, you can't trust the left thief! This guy tricked me into withdrawing the soldiers and horses from Yuzhou and Yexian respectively, I'm afraid I don't want to cooperate with Shen Shuren's sneak attack, right? Just because of his correspondence with Shen Shuren, deletion and deception, he should be made to pay a price!

Pass my order to move the last two waves of men and horses who originally planned to be transferred to Yuncheng to Ye County! Zuo Liangyu's side must not be guarded against! ”

Song Xiance felt a little scattered and couldn't help but persuade euphemistically: "Could it be too cautious?" Even if the left thief has selfish intentions, but Ye County is in the hands of our army, and the dangerous pass of Tongbai Mountain is not something that Zuo Liangyu can easily cross, and this amount of troops is enough to hold it before.

Moreover, Yexian County has a dangerous terrain, sparse population, no waterway to pass through large ships, and it is difficult to transport grain and grass, unlike Yuncheng that directly relies on the begging canal and Rushui. There are many troops stationed in Yexian County and they have been stationed for a long time, even if they rely on eating people to solve the military rations, there are not so many local people to eat. ”

Li Zicheng raised his hand and motioned to Song Xiance to stop: "Be careful, there's no big mistake!" Besides, it's good to take the opportunity to see Zuo Liangyu's sincerity. Even if Lone increases his troops in Ye County, he will go secretly. You can even let Zuo Liangyu let that Hao Xiaozhong supervise again.

Let's play Dong Zhuo and Li Shimin's tricks in the play, and play the other way around, 'sneak troops into the city at night, and go out of the city with great fanfare during the day', and tell Zuo Liangyu that we will withdraw most of Yexian's troops.

If Zuo Liangyu also keeps his promise and withdraws most of the troops in Yuzhou on the other side, we will be fine. If there is a disturbance, or if the Yexian garrison is really short of food, and there is an opportunity on the other side, we will tear up the covenant and sneak attack Nanyang to feed Zuo Liangyu!

Lone Ke heard that Nanyang was originally the basis for Yang Sichang's attack, and there was still some grain in stock, and the surrounding areas of Henan were all scourged by the war and ran out of food, and the surplus grain of Zuo Liangyu's nest could also be supplemented. ”

Song Xiance listened to the king's words to this extent, and breaking the covenant oath was as easy as drinking water and farting, and of course he was not good at persuading him again.

……

After all, because of Li Zicheng's suspicion, a crack was torn open.

In the next few days, Li Zicheng also divided an additional 40,000 or 50,000 troops to Ye County as promised, and Ye County's side was supposed to transfer people and horses to Yuncheng, so they were not transferred at all.

Li Zicheng's army of 380,000 originally planned to be stationed around Yuncheng with 200,000, Yexian at most 350,000, and 100,000 around Kaifeng, leaving a small amount of scattered looting and supplementing grain and grass.

Now it has become less than 150,000 stationed in Yuncheng, and 780,000 on the Yexian side, and there are more reserves left in the rear along the way, which can be concealed and mobile reinforcements at any time, and it is difficult to repeat the details for a while.

In a word, Shen Shuren only relied on a letter and let Li Zicheng's henchmen see the existence of Gu Yanwu, so he mobilized Li Zicheng, and also let Li Zicheng deploy the troops in front of Yuncheng, and weakened at least thirty percent to guard against non-existent threats.

And Zuo Liangyu was also transferred by Shen Shuren, he obviously didn't want to share the pressure for Shen Shuren. But after pulling a rift with Li Zicheng and letting Li Zicheng know that "there is a considerable amount of grain stored by Yang Sichang for the army of thieves before Yang Sichang's death in Nanyang City", Zuo Liangyu also had to protect himself.

In fact, he also played the trick of "pretending not to leave many troops on the front line, but in fact he was just Li Zicheng's inspection envoy, playing the trick of openly withdrawing troops during the day and secretly coming back at night", and both sides could only be frozen by suspicion.

And the strategic goals of the three parties have become more and more clear in this pull-

The thieves are waiting for Shen Shuren to storm Yuncheng, or if Shen Shuren dares to bypass Yuncheng and go directly to Kaifeng, they will cut off Shen Shuren's grain route.

However, Shen Shuren can take advantage of the fact that "after the thieves move to Yuncheng, because of the concentration of troops, it will become more and more difficult to scatter most of the people out to kill and rob and find food, and it will be difficult to last", and when Li Zicheng shows his flaws, or has to divide his troops, Shen Shuren will do it again when the time comes.

The key to this is all kinds of psychological warfare.

For example, how can Shen Shuren make Li Zicheng believe that "I consume more energy than you, I have more food than you, and I am not afraid that Chongzhen will force me to fight a decisive battle",

And how does Li Zicheng make Shen Shuren believe that "I don't believe that you are more energy consuming than me, and I don't believe that you can resist the persecution of the pig leader Chongzhen to fight."

Of course, this kind of psychological warfare can't be rushed, so after the two armies held each other between Yuncheng and Shangcai, in the first four or five days, Shen Shuren didn't do anything, just did a good job of intelligence reconnaissance, and some small-scale conflicts broke out between the two sides, all of which were scout wars.

And this kind of small-scale scout warfare is often won by the official army - because of the small-scale cavalry confrontation, the equipment advantage of the official army is too obvious.

The elite cavalry under Zhu Wenzhen's command, with the blessing of the all-staff revolver troll pistol, can definitely bombard several times as many enemy scouts as slag. In contrast, the advantage of numbers and size on the bandit's side is simply impossible to play in the scout war.

It was not Li Zicheng's scout cavalry, but he encountered Shen Shuren's scout cavalry, and then most of them were slaughtered.

It was Li Zicheng who sent a small force to kill people and steal grain, but they were attacked, and then even lost all the food they had grabbed.

Or after Li Zicheng suffered a loss, he wanted to send a mobile force to infiltrate and cut off Shen Shuren's grain route in Shangcai's troops, but he was still defeated by Shen Shuren-

The main reason is that Shen Shuren has troops in Shangcai and Ruyang to guard it tightly, and the distance between Shangcai and Ruyang is not far, and there is very little room for detours.

After suffering several losses, Li Zicheng finally found a problem.

"This Shen Dog Officer is so arrogant? I heard that he is in Xinyang Mansion, and the whole army is only seventy or eighty thousand, and he has to leave some to guard the rear, and the front army should be fifty or sixty thousand, right? Just like this, he still dares to leave troops in Shangcai and Ruyang at the same time, and strictly guard against our army everywhere?

He's not afraid of being broken by each of us? Have you found out how many defenders there are in the two cities of Shangcai and Ruyang? ”

One day at the end of September, after losing two more scout battles and harassing grain road battles, Li Zicheng couldn't help but angrily reprimand his generals.

He had already seen that Shen Shuren's deployment, because he was a battalion step by step, was very unfavorable to the invasion of the army and the division of the grain route, and the rear was too stable.

But there is also a price to be paid for the stability of the rear, because there are so many total troops, and fortifying everywhere means that there are not enough troops everywhere.

If Li Zicheng chooses a city siege point to send reinforcements and eat it strongly, Shen Shuren will be broken by each one.

After recognizing this situation, the generals that Li Zicheng brought to Yuncheng also clamored.

The number one general, Liu Zongmin, and his nephew Li Guo did not come to the front line of Yuncheng because they were left in the siege of Kaifeng. In addition, Yuan Zongdi was left in Ye County to beware of Zuo Liangyu.

Therefore, Liu Fangliang, Tian Jianxiu and others, who were under Liu Zongmin, took the opportunity to ask for battle: "King, the last general sent someone to investigate the day before yesterday, although it is not detailed, it can also be estimated that the defenders in Shangcai City will not exceed twenty or thirty thousand at most!"

The last general is willing to lead the troops and horses of his headquarters, attack Shangcai first, annihilate one of them, and wipe out the sharp spirit of Shen Gouguan! If Shen Gouguan dared to come to the aid from Ruyang and other places with the main force of the official army, then the king would just personally command the army and besiege the city to help destroy it! ”

Li Zicheng thought about it for a while, and then announced: "Okay, it's up to you, Tian Jianxiu, you take the soldiers and horses of your headquarters to fight first!" Liu Fangliang, as a reserve, if Tian Jianxiu fails to attack the city, you will go again! If there is a change in the reinforcements of the official army, you will also meet it immediately, and the king will lead the main force to respond! ”

——

PS: Regardless of whether the comment server is restored or not, two shifts will be resumed from next Monday (the day after tomorrow, the 24th). It should be soon.