Although the rumors are very detailed and detailed, they are very nonsensical and have many irrationalities. For example, that Xiangfu County Commander Shen Yingdan is just from Liupin Zhi County, and Wang Ziyong, as the commander of the 36th Battalion Volunteer Army, has no reason to surrender to such a sesame petty official, and it is unlikely that 10,000 lives will be exchanged for a first-level official rank, so not many people believe it.

However, because this rumor was very interesting, after the soldiers of the righteous army heard it, they only relayed it as a joke, so it spread very quickly, and it spread throughout all the camps of the righteous army company camp outside Huaiqing City in just one day, almost to the extent that everyone knew about it.

Of course, Zuihou inevitably reached the ears of Wang Ziyong himself, and the marshal was so angry that he asked his soldiers to track down who had created such rumors. It's just an army of tens of thousands of people, and it's so easy to find out by word of mouth, not to mention that there are many righteous soldiers who don't listen to his orders, so they have been checking for a long time without results.

This is naturally Hua Bushi's masterpiece. "Qianhuafang" has long planted a lot of eyeliner in the rebel army, Hua Bushi has heard Chu Yiyi talk about it, and this kind of rumor-mongering is their specialty.

By the next day, the rebels were still defeated in the siege, but the content of the rumors circulating in the army had changed.

According to the latest rumors, the court official that Wang Ziyong wanted to surrender to Cheng was Shen Jingwen, the governor of Henan, and Wang Ziyong gave his sister to Shen Jingwen's third son as the seventh concubine, and Shen Jingwen became Wang Dashuai's uncle. Lord Shen took great care of this nephew, and promised him to lead more than 10,000 men and horses under his command to surrender to the imperial court, and give him a six-pin thousand general manager.

This new version of the rumor was much more plausible than the previous ones, and the governor of Henan, Shen Jingwen, was a member of the Sanpin, and he wanted to accept the surrender of Wang Ziyong, at least in terms of official rank. Wang Ziyong's ancestral home is Yingzhou, Datong Prefecture, Shanxi, and he was a rich peasant in the countryside before joining the rebel army, and there is indeed a younger sister in the family who has not yet married, and Shen Jingwen happens to be from Shanxi, so it is also suitable for the two fellows to form a family.

If the morale of the 36th Battalion was high and the prestige of the king was still there, no one would believe such rumors. But now the rebel army has been defeated in successive battles, morale is low, and it has reached the verge of falling apart, except for Wang Zi's own use of his own "Jinliang Village" people, eight out of ten soldiers in each battalion are dissatisfied with this commander, and as soon as these originally untrustworthy rumors spread, some people began to believe them.

In fact, whether you believe it or not, it's always good to have an excuse to scold this handsome man.

At the instigation of their brothers, several upright rebel leaders even approached the king's own tent to question the matter. The king was furious, and repelled the cannons that had come to the door, and ordered his men to investigate the source of the rumors, and issued an order forbidding the soldiers of the battalion to spread the word again.

The source of the rumor naturally cannot be found, and the commander ordered that all the people in the rebel army who did not know about this rumor also knew about it. After all, this Wang Dashuai was only a squire, and he still lacked fire in terms of power and scheming, so he moved a stone and hit his own foot in anger, and completely fell into Hua Bushi's calculations.

On the third day, not only Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong, but also the other battalions of rebels refused to obey the king's orders to attack the city. In desperation, Wang Ziyong could only send his own "Jinliang Village" people, and another purpose of his doing this was to refute the rumors, so that the rebels from all walks of life could restore their trust in him.

To say that the men and horses of "Jinliang Village" are indeed much stronger than the fish belly troops who attacked the city a few days ago. Using their shields to resist the city and throwing arrows and torchstones, the rebel soldiers quickly rushed to the city wall, and began to storm the city wall with a ladder.

However, with the well-equipped officers and soldiers in the city, there are a variety of equipment for defending the city, and they have won consecutive battles, their morale is high, and the general soldier Yu Jue is even more effective, and the righteous army is attacking it, which is really not half cheap. After fighting for half a day, by noon, the rebels had lost more than 1,000 men, while the officers and men on the opposite side had about two or three hundred dead and wounded.

This kind of damage ratio is normal for besieging a fortified city, and the defending side has a favorable position to defend the wall, and of course has a great advantage in the battle, and the attacking side can only pay more sacrifices. In terms of the art of war, the defenders must not be given a chance to breathe at such times, and only by continuing to attack and constantly deplete the defenders can they finally drag down the opponent.

However, as the so-called country is easy to change, and his nature is difficult to change, Wang's selfishness and selfishness recurred, making him make another big mistake. He saw that in just one morning's strong attack, the men and horses of "Jinliang Village" had suffered as many as 1,000 casualties, and he had to lose two or three thousand people in one day, which were all the elite men and horses of "Jinliang Village", which really made him feel great pain. So before noon, Wang ordered the withdrawal of the army and led the troops back to the camp.

A few days ago, the rebel army attacked the city, even if it suffered heavy casualties, but it also fought for a whole day, and today the siege only lasted half a day and the troops were collected, obviously because Marshal Wang was reluctant to lose his own soldiers and horses. Could it be that the lives of the brothers of other righteous soldiers are not valuable, and they can be sacrificed at will, and only the people and horses of their "Jinliang Village" cannot die?

Wang's use of this withdrawal not only did not play a role in refuting the rumors and calming the morale of the army, but aroused the anger of the officers and men of the other battalions of the righteous army.

It was also at this time that the fake letter from the king to Shen Jingwen finally appeared.

The letter was intercepted by several subordinates of the 36th Battalion of the Volunteer Army, nicknamed "Lighting the Lamp" Zhao Sheng. At that time, they were patrolling the perimeter of the company camp when they spotted a flying horse galloping eastward, and immediately chased and intercepted it.

The knight stumbled and fell down in a panic, and fainted, and Zhao Sheng's men rushed to the front to recognize the person as a messenger in the king's own camp.

Hua Bushi and Chu Yiyi arranged this matter very cleverly, and it was not difficult to buy a small soldier in the king's own battalion.

The letter fell into Zhao Sheng's hand, and he was shocked when he read the letter, and hurriedly took it to find Ping Suli to hand over Haode Zhang Xianzhong. And Zhang Xianzhong did not hesitate, immediately summoned the leaders of the rebel army from all walks of life, and made the letter public, Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng and others also got the news and hurried over.

The content of this letter not only includes Wang Ziyong's willingness to lead the army to surrender to Cheng and accept Zhao'an, but also the words "send her sister to Kaifeng Mansion to marry Ling Gongzi as soon as possible", which is in line with the rumors that have been circulating in the past few days.

The leaders immediately decided to go to the king to settle the account with him, but none of them questioned the authenticity of this letter.

This is also the principle of "the wall falls down and everyone pushes it", when everyone is dissatisfied with Wang Ziyong and everyone hopes that he will fall, as long as there is evidence that he collaborated with the enemy to surrender, it doesn't matter whether it is true or not, anyway, you have to take the opportunity to bring him down.

Of course, Wang Ziyong refused to admit that this crime was not committed by him, but it was difficult to argue. The letter in black and white was placed in front of him, and the captured soldier also insisted that this letter was ordered by the king to send him to Kaifeng Mansion, which can be described as ironclad evidence.

In the tent, Wang Ziyong's generals and a group of rebel leaders almost drew their swords and fought, but fortunately, Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng and others dissuaded them in time, and the two sides did not use force.

Wang Ziyong was ashamed and annoyed, angry and wanted to die, this handsome man really couldn't do it anymore. He took out the handsome seal and threw it on the case, and ordered more than 10,000 people in "Jinliang Village" to immediately pull out the camp, withdraw from outside Huaiqing City overnight, and go away.

As the saying goes, a snake can't be without a head, and you can't be without a commander in the army for a day.

Wang Ziyong left with his men, and the leaders of the rebel army immediately discussed and elected a new commander. In terms of the number of men and horses under his command and the prestige of the rebels from all walks of life, there is no doubt that the only people who have the ability to be the new marshal are the "King Chuang" Gao Yingxiang and the "Eight Kings" Zhang Xianzhong.

After some debate and voting, there was a slight majority of those who supported King Gao. Gao Yingxiang himself also resolutely said that he would lead everyone to capture Huaiqing City and get rid of the current predicament. You must know that even if the commander of the 36th battalion is majestic, he is really not good now, and the burden of capturing Huaiqing City is even heavier, and even Zhang Xianzhong is a little retreating.

Under such circumstances, the leaders of the battalions finally unified their opinions and elected Gao Yingxiang as the new commander of the rebel army, and Zhang Xianzhong was appointed as the deputy commander.

The position of commander was established, Gao Yingxiang immediately raised his account, and ordered all the rebels to re-encamp outside the city, assign patrols, and form an encirclement of Huaiqing City. It was only because the company and battalion of the rebel army were already very flawed, and Wang Ziyong angrily led his troops to pull out the camp and leave, and there was a big gap in the encirclement, and it was necessary to readjust the camp and demarcate the defense area of each battalion.

From the departure of Wang Ziyong to the election of a new commander by the leaders, Gao Yingxiang ordered the reorganization of the company camp, and an hour has passed. The gap in the encirclement of the rebels was wide open, and several scouts of the officers and soldiers who had been watching from a distance outside the city galloped through the gap and entered Huaiqing City without any hindrance. It was not until an hour later that the battalions of rebels reunited and closed the gap.

In the turn of the day, the new marshal Gao Yingxiang ordered troops to attack the city.

This was already the seventh day that the rebels had arrived in Huaiqing City. In the first six days, under the command of Wang Ziyong, the rebel army attacked the city almost without an inch, and did not cause much attrition to the defenders in Huaiqing City at all. There are only four days left, and if the city cannot be captured, reinforcements from the governor of Henan will arrive, and the rebel army will be attacked inside and outside, and it will be difficult to escape the doom of destruction.

Although the commander was changed, the combat strength of the righteous army did not improve, but was greatly weakened by the loss of more than 10,000 people in the "Jinliang Village". Gao Yingxiang sent his own horses and several small groups of rebels to attack the city, but the battle situation still did not improve. The morale of the officers and soldiers on the city wall is high, and there are sufficient weapons to defend the city such as crossbow arrows, torch stones, and hot oil.