Among the strongest rebels in the three routes, the king of "Zijin Liang" has a small amount of energy and acts selfishly, and he is really not a commander. Although Zhang Xianzhong, the "Eight Kings", was brave and good at fighting, but he was cruel by nature, and when he led his troops to loot towns and counties in the past, he often not only robbed food and property, but also killed many lives for no reason, which made everyone afraid, and he could not become a big weapon.

"King Chuang" Gao Yingxiang is benevolent by nature, does not kill people casually, and is very trusted by his subordinates, but it is a pity that his personality is a little stupid, he is too calculating and less profitable, and lacks eloquence. If it weren't for this, there would be a lot of elite men under his command, and there were subordinates like Li Zicheng, whose combat power was really no less than that of Wang Ziyong, and he would have the opportunity to become the leader of the alliance at the "Righteous Conference" in Liaozhou that day, and he would not let Wang Ziyong gain power with his dictatorship.

After listening to what Chu Yiyi said, Hua Bushi pondered for a moment and said, "Speaking of which, among the three leaders of the righteous army, none of them actually have the talent to command?"

Chu Yiyi said: "To say that it is more appropriate to be the commander of the thirty-sixth battalion of the righteous army, relatively speaking, it is more appropriate to 'break the king' Gao Yingxiang, but he is too stupid, does not understand power and strategy, and is not good at knowing and employing people, it is really difficult to sit in this position, and even if he is reluctantly begiving, I am afraid that it will be difficult to have haode results after a long time." In the opinion of the concubine, Li Zicheng, the brother-in-law of the son, is a brave and resourceful hero, and his future is uncertain, but he is only a general under King Chuang, and it is impossible to surpass Gao Yingxiang to become a marshal. ”

Hua Bushi nodded and said, "Brother Li wants to be a handsome, but now he is really too reluctant." However, since King Gao Chuang trusts him very much, if he becomes the leader of the alliance, he should follow Brother Li's strategy, at least it will be beneficial to attack Huaiqing City at the moment. ”

Chu Yiyi said: "What Gongzi said is right! Now only by letting all the righteous soldiers and horses work together and obey the command, can there be a glimmer of hope to capture Huaiqing City. The number of soldiers and horses under Gao Yingxiang is second only to Wang Ziyong, and his prestige in the righteous army is higher than that of Zhang Xianzhong. ”

Hua Bushi said: "But although Wang Ziyong is immoral, incompetent, and useless, he has the most people under his command after all, but it is not so easy to fall for a while." ”

He looked at Chu Yiyi and smiled, "Does Mrs. Yiyi have a good plan?"

Chu Yiyi said: "The concubine doesn't have a good plan, but it is not difficult to let the king fall for his own use, just send someone to assassinate this person, the thirty-sixth battalion can't let a dead man be the commander!"

Hua Bushi thought about it, but shook his head and said, "This move is inappropriate." If the king is assassinated by someone for his own use, his generals and soldiers will definitely refuse to rest, even if we can do it cleanly and without showing traces, at this moment they will suspect that Gao Yingxiang or Zhang Xianzhong did it, and the rebels from all walks of life will inevitably fight among themselves. Now the siege combat power is already insufficient, and if it is consumed in vain like this, it is even more impossible to capture Huaiqing. ”

Chu Yiyi looked at Hua Bushi, and suddenly pouted: "Looking at the look of the son, he must have already had a plan in his heart, so why do you need to ask Yiyi's plan!"

Hua Bushi said with a smile: "Although I have some ideas, this matter is very important, and I want to hear other people's opinions." Moreover, we dealt with Wang Ziyi, all to help Brother Li get the command of the rebels, if he didn't have such intentions, it would be in vain for us to overstep the line. ”

Chu Yiyi said: "Since this is the case, then without further ado, why don't we go back to Li Zicheng's camp now, talk to him about this matter, and make plans as soon as possible." ”

Hua Bushi said, "No." Although it is not too late, we can't rush it, let's go back to Qingyang Town first, and wait for a day or two. ”

In terms of scheming and means of fighting for power and profit, most of the leaders of the rebel army are mud legs from peasant backgrounds, and they cannot be compared with Hua Bushi and Chu Yiyi.

Although Yang Jiangyi is also from a famous family, he is not the main person in charge of the sect, and secondly, he has a straightforward personality, and he has always only practiced martial arts and swords, and has no interest in all kinds of conspiracies.

Hua Bushi walked very slowly, and it was late afternoon when he returned to Qingyang Town, and he got a pretty good news as soon as he entered Dingfu, but it was a flying pigeon from Kaifeng Mansion sent by "Qianhuafang".

Five days ago, he asked Chu Yiyi to send a message to the helmsman of the "Luohan Gate", informing Fang Changsheng of the situation of the hero's banquet that day, and proposing to buy the secret book of "Bone Shrinking Gong". Fang Changsheng had now received the news, wrote back to thank him, and promised to sell the "Bone Shrinking Gong" secret book to the "Evil Dog Gate" at a price of 100,000 taels of silver.

100,000 taels of silver is by no means a small amount, even if it is a secret book of superior martial arts, most of them are not worth this lot of silver taels, not to mention that "bone shrinking skill" is just a useless chicken rib kung fu in the eyes of most people in the rivers and lakes. Fang Changsheng had probably already heard of Hua Bushi's name as a "rich man", so he opened his mouth to offer such a price.

However, Hua Bushi did not hesitate at all, and immediately took out 100,000 taels of silver tickets to buy cheats. If things are not urgent, there is still time to spare, this eldest young master can go to Kaifeng City to see Fang Changsheng, and repay the money on the spot, presumably he will be able to cut tens of thousands of silver taels. But now the war in Huaiqing City is urgent, not to mention Hua Bushi himself, even Chu Yiyi can't get out, and he has no choice but to admit it when he is the wronged boss.

handed over 100,000 taels of silver to the "Thousand Flowers Fang" to trade with Fang Changsheng, and Hua Bushi lived in the courtyard of the house in the back garden of Ding's mansion, staying at home all day, and not going to see the battle situation of the rebel army's siege of the city. Until dusk the next day, three war horses galloped from the direction of Huaiqing City, but it was Li Zicheng who came to Qingyang Town in person.

Li Zicheng did not bring soldiers with him on this trip, and he was accompanied by Li Guo and Hao Shaoqi. The three of them came to the gate of Ding's mansion, and a guard disciple went in to report, and soon Hua Bushi greeted him.

"Brother Hongji is here, the younger brother has nothing to entertain here, only a few jars of haode aged Fen wine, just enough for Brother Tai to taste, the three of you, please come in with me!"

Hao Shaoqi was overjoyed when he heard this, and shouted: "Okay, sure enough, Brother Shi is interesting enough! In the past few days, he has lost the battle, and the king has no place to go out with that straw bag, and if he doesn't drink a few sips of good wine, he will almost suffocate Lao Hao to death!"

Li Zicheng reprimanded: "Wave the flag and shut up, don't talk nonsense!"

At that moment, Hua Bushi led the three of them through the front hall to the back house, and entered a small hall in the side courtyard. After the four of them sat down at the table, Hua Bushi asked someone to bring the wine up, and it was indeed a fine wine of more than 30 years.

Since the "overnight" in the Ding Mansion, the disciples of the "Evil Dog Gate" have already turned the entire mansion upside down. These more than 20 jars of Fenjiu were originally stored in the cellar, and they were treasured by Ding Yuanwai, and they could be regarded as rare things, but because they were too heavy, it was not easy to carry them when they went out to take refuge, but now they happened to be taken out by Hua Bushi to borrow flowers and offer Buddha, which came in handy.

Hao Shaoqi is worthy of being a big drunkard, as soon as the wine jar was moved, he couldn't wait to pat open the mud seal and pour it into the sea bowl and drink it.

Hua Bushi drank his disciple away, and said with a smile: "Now there are no others here, if Brother Hongji comes to find the younger brother if there is something, he can also say it directly, right?"

Li Zicheng smiled bitterly a few times, and said: "It's not a secret, not only is it waving the flag these days, but even my brother and I are really bored, Zong Min, who usually has the most ideas, is not in the army now, I have to come to talk to Brother Shi today, Brother Su knows that he is resourceful, if I can give my brother some ideas, it would be great!"

Hua Bushi said: "Don't dare to be resourceful, if you can help Brother Hongji, the younger brother should do his best." My brother is upset, but is it because of the attack on Huaiqing City?"

Li Zicheng said: "Brother Shi is really smart, who says it's not!"

Hua Bushi said: "Could it be that the siege of the city today has failed again?"

Before Li Zicheng could reply, Hao Shaoqi had already spoken: "Don't mention it! Generalissimo Wang's useless straw bale sent a few miscellaneous fish troops to be the vanguard, where is there any reason to be invincible? Today, after a day of fighting, the rebel army lost more than 2,000 people, and they didn't even touch the city wall.

Hua Bushi said: "Huaiqing City is high and deep, it is normal that it cannot be captured within one day, and it is normal to besiege it for a few more days, and the weapons and soldiers in the city cannot be consumed, so there may be some opportunities." ”

Hao Shaoqi said: "The officers and soldiers have not suffered much damage at all, but they have injured many brothers of the righteous army with some throwing stones and giant crossbows.

To besiege the fortified city with more fights and less, only to keep attacking, when the defending side of the city could not support it and finally collapsed, the city was also breached. In addition to damaging the opponent's soldiers and consuming the opponent's weapons and ordnance, this method of warfare is more important to hit the opponent's morale.

The rebel army has 50,000 people, if the city is attacked with all its strength at the beginning, it is not impossible to take Huaiqingben, but the king has lost the hearts of the people, and he can't command several major rebel leaders, and he is unwilling to use his own "Jinliang Village" people, so he can only order some fish belly troops to fight the city. The small group of rebels were poorly equipped and untrained, and before they could reach the city walls, they were beaten by the officers' catapults and crossbows and arrows, and Zuihou had to retreat in defeat.

In this way, not only did it fail to consume the opponent's troops, but it greatly boosted the morale of the officers and soldiers defending the city. You must know that Huaiqing was surrounded by tens of thousands of righteous troops, and the strength of the defenders in the city was less than 20% of the righteous army, so it was inevitable that they were afraid, but the engagement in the past two days had strengthened the confidence of the officers and soldiers in the city to win, and it was even more difficult to capture Huaiqing City.