stubborn thief

On the day Longzhou City was broken, Yue Wenyuan was the first person to gallop to the top of the city, and then rushed into the state government with his brother Yue Wenkui.

The two brothers were born in the family of hereditary officers in Zhuanglangwei. Later, they were officers of the township soldiers in the five towns of Hehuang. Huben camp.

They are descendants of Yue Fei.

However, this lineage is not uncommon. The Yue family has been in the army for generations, and has spread everywhere with military transfers. Gansu is also a military town. The descendants of Yue Fei under Liu Chengzong's rule gathered together, even enough to form a Yue family camp.

This time, the two of them originally wanted to break into the state government office and win the meritorious service of capturing Zhizhou alive, but unexpectedly, there were no living people in the government office.

When Liu Chengzong entered the city, the soldiers and horses of the commander-in-chief had already taken over the defense. The horse soldiers and the streets in the city loudly read out the Announcement for the People, ordering the residents of the state city to close their doors and not leave their homes, and asked people to keep an eye on their livestock so that the big birds would not take them away.

The vultures who followed the army all the way from Qinghai actually gave Liu Shizi a headache.

There are more than 30 flocks of vultures following him, and each flock can have as few as five or six and as many as eleven or twelve. They will hover in the sky as far as the army can spread.

The Tang Bing of the Marshal's Mansion did have the idea of ​​taming the vultures. After all, the vultures have already relied on them. Hovering in the sky will reveal the position of the Marshal's army to a certain extent, but under the guidance of the situation, it can also be a kind of deterrent, and at the same time help them discover enemy.

It was only later that people discovered that there was no need to domesticate it... This thing is too familiar to people, it is completely familiar, as long as it is not hungry, it will not attack living things, even if it is hungry, it will not attack the army.

On the contrary, when they are hungry, they pose a greater threat to the small animals that are alone, so the rangers of the Marshal's Army will rob when they are stationed in the camp, no, they share the prey of the vultures.

This instead makes them and their relationship even closer.

After all, this is the way of living in groups of vultures. One vulture attacks a small animal, and other vultures see it. Then everyone will perform face-changing, and each neck and head will turn red to scare each other.

This skill is also known to the Marshal Army. Their cloth armor is red, and they rush over on horseback to drive away the vultures, clean up the prey, take the best meat, and then slice the rest into meat strips For the vultures, make sure there's nothing left.

It is very in line with the living habits of vultures not to waste.

The Marshal Army has greatly changed the life of the vultures. In the past, they were hungry and full, often hungry for several days, and then had a meal that was too full to fly. Now they are better. Marshal, starving for ten meals in five days, every meal has food, and every meal is not enough.

After all, an eagle cannot be full. If it is full, it will fly far away, and if it is hungry, it will devour its master.

Liu Chengzong's attitude towards the vultures is very complicated. He has specially ordered the soldiers not to come into close contact with the vultures even if they are feeding them.

This order caused the marshal's army to treat the vulture group with respect.

The main reason is that vultures are big. He is afraid that soldiers will eat vultures. After all, vultures eat carrion and have strong immunity. These sources of infection that may cause the plague can be cleaned up.

When Liu Chengzong entered the Yamen of Longzhou, apart from his soldiers, there were only twelve corpses in the Yamen.

Seven mats were placed in the main hall, and two mats were built by the brothers of the Yue family. Before they entered the yamen, the city was already in chaos. Beat to death several yamen servants and six servants who stayed in the yamen.

There were three sets of coffins with different specifications in the back hall, which were also pried open, but the corpses inside were intact, which did not disturb Deng Qi's sleep.

Liu Chengzong only took one look, and then asked people to cover the coffin again—Deng Qi fell too badly, and put a thick powder on the body to cover up the blemishes, which made it even uglier.

As for the Zhizhou mansion in the innermost part, according to the brothers of the Yue family, the thieves seemed to have just run away when they came in, and hadn’t had time to enter the back house, so they were not robbed. However, Hu Erchun took office without his family, and there was nothing inside.

Liu Shizixin said that if he came to be the magistrate, he would not bring his family with him.

Zhizhou can be regarded as a high-ranking official. In other provinces, people with their families enjoy the glory and wealth; but in Shaanxi these days, those who dare to come to take office are desperadoes with their heads hanging on their belts. The degree of danger is comparable to bandits and robbers. There are too many, unless they are from Shaanxi, it is more dangerous for their family members to be sent to other places, otherwise how many people dare to take their family members to take office?
Hu Erchun and Li Qimao are in the back house of the state government office.

There was a half jug of wine, two glasses, and a long letter on the table.

The kind Zhizhou and the eggless eunuch are all the same at this time, six feet of plain cloth, hung on the beams on one side and one on the right.

When Liu Chengzong saw Li Qimao hanging on the beam, his heart didn't fluctuate much, but he was very angry when he saw Hu Erchun hanging on the beam, and his brows frowned directly.

The brothers Yue Wenyuan and Yue Wenkui, who were leading the way beside them, looked at each other in blank dismay, and for some reason the commander suddenly became so downcast.

Yue Wenkui thought that Liu Chengzong hadn't seen the seal of Zhizhou, so he quickly pointed to the table and said, "Marshal, the seal of Zhizhou is still there, under the tree in the hidden yard, the newly dug soil, it can be seen at a glance that something is hidden."

"well done."

Liu Chengzong rested his left hand on the handle of the knife at his waist, went to the table, picked up Hu Erchun's letter, and started chopping.

This Hu Erchun died very shamelessly. Before the war, Liu Shizi wrote to persuade him when he was still on Liupan Mountain. If there is no reinforcements within a day, the city will be destroyed. It is better to come down early, so as not to kill others.

So as soon as the city broke down in the morning, Liu Shizi had one thing in his mind: I will have to scold him when I enter the city.

I knew why today, why didn't I surrender!

He was still at war between heaven and man in his heart, thinking that if Hu Erchun cried bitterly and regretted his mistakes, should he surrender and give him an official position? After all, this person is also a talented and capable official. All the requirements of the lion for wearing official robes.

As a result, as soon as he entered the city, Liu Shizi prepared all the words to curse the street, and he hanged himself.

Now he is only looking forward to this last letter, hoping that Hu Erchun will repent when his life comes to an end, but he reads the letter and is disappointed.

This Hu Erchun is pure and tougher than Liu Chengzong imagined. The letter was written to the old mother and son in his hometown, and he was only mentioned at the end, and it was a polite way of asking him to treat the people kindly.

Li Qimao was even cooler, he left without leaving a word.

Liu Chengzong didn't have any temper towards these two people, he waved his hands irritably and said to the brothers of the Yue family in the house: "Put down these two pendants of loyalty, and let someone prepare two coffins, together with Deng Qi in the main hall, give them all to the left, no , all sent to Tang Kyushu hidden in the mountains in the north."

In fact, Hu Erchun regretted it.

When the moat outside the city was filled last night, Hu Erchun regretted why he didn't open the city directly.

But war is like this. Sima Yi said that if you can fight, you should fight, if you can't fight, you should defend, and if you can't fight, you should leave.

It's just that the moats have been filled, and Hu Erchun feels that it is inappropriate to surrender at this time.

When the two armies are facing each other, when is the best time to surrender?

When the gap between the two sides is the smallest, the cost to the enemy is the greatest.

Liu Chengzong is outside the city, and Hu Erchun is inside the city. There are city walls, moats, and moats in the middle. Even if there is no battle, the outcome is determined. There are [-] defenders, and the attacking party must pay [-] lives in advance preparation.

It is most beneficial to surrender at this time.

When the city was really attacked, the marshal's army suffered three casualties. Two of them were killed by the three-eyed guns. One of them was frightened by the sound and light of the guns when he rode his horse up the city. The defenders were routed—there was no threat at all, so why surrender?

People are worthless without threats.

Hu Erchun thought, it is better to be a loyal minister than to surrender and be insulted by others and make the family suffer. I am dead!
Soon the two seals were presented by Yue Wenkui, and Liu Shizi was looking at the two seals when he heard Yu Linqi report that the general bee tail asked to see him.

Liu Chengzong asked people to come in, and said with a smile, "What are you doing in the state government office instead of picking up shells in the city?"

Attacking strategically important places is tiring, how refreshing it is to attack a city, and how hard it is to clean up the city after the attack.

Liu Chengzong of Longzhou city also needs to use it. After all, this is not the front line and the rear, but behind the enemy's front line, so the filled trenches have to be dug again, the earth mountains that have been repaired have to be removed again, and even bricks have been repaired outside the city. The factory needs to repair the parapet wall at the head of the city and the sheep and horse wall outside.

Zhang Zhen carried a long bundle into the back hall and curled his lips. All the state government saw were corpses along the way. He thought that the city was not the place where resistance was fiercest, but the state government was.

Seeing Liu Chengzong from afar, Beetail Needle hurriedly ran two steps, stepped forward and said with a smile: "Commander, I have picked up the shells. I came here to present a good thing to the commander."

How to put it, this guy's two steps are fake, but it makes people feel very comfortable, and then he handed the black satin bag in his hand to Liu Chengzong.

Liu Chengzong took the burden, and it weighed four to five catties. When he opened it, he saw that it was a short gun, which was very finely crafted.

He was looking at the workmanship of this self-igniting firecracker, and he heard the bee tail needle looking at the two people lying in the hall, and asked: "Oh, commander, this hairless man is the guarding eunuch Li Qimao, right?"

Liu Chengzong handed the self-generated fire blunderbuss to Habayashi Qi, and asked them to put it away first, and then sent it to the Military Weapons Bureau after the battle, then turned his head and nodded to the bee-tail needle, and asked: "What else can I do?"

"Marshal, that gun is not a fun thing as the humble official said."

The bee tail needle smiled and said: "When I was looking for shells, I bumped into a few Jinyi fans hiding in the houses and killed several of them. They were all Li Qimao's followers. They left a living saying that there were more than 4000 horses in Yaozhou. On this Li Qimao, just write a letter to the other side to tell them not to move, and let's go get the horse."

"The imperial court raised horses for the Marshal again. There are more than 4000 horses, and they are all waiting for the Marshal to pick them up in Yaozhou."

As soon as the bee tail needle finished speaking, he saw Liu Chengzong throwing something casually, and he took it in his hand without reacting. He was stunned for a moment before he saw clearly that it was the seal of the guarding eunuch.

"You've been promoted."

The beetail needle's crotch felt cold in fright.

"It's up to you to write to them and ask them to take good care of my horse."

After finishing speaking, Liu Chengzong turned his head to look at the two brothers of the Yue family, his gaze traveled repeatedly on their faces, and finally settled on the face of his elder brother Yue Wenyuan: "Have you ever read a book?"

Yue Wenyuan was stunned for a moment, not understanding what the Generalissimo meant... They all entered the Huben Camp to study, and there were no illiterate soldiers in the Huben Camp.

Realizing that Liu Chengzong was still waiting for his answer, Yue Wenyuan said hastily: "Back to Commander, Brother Xiaoren studied in the military academy since he was a child, and he was favored to study in the Huben camp."

Liu Shizi nodded and pondered: "In this case, the reward for being the first to ascend... Take it, and send a hundred people from each battalion to help you."

The seal letter was thrown into Yue Wenyuan's arms, and only then did Liu Chengzong say: "Temporarily know the affairs of Longzhou, you will come if you do well, and Zhang Yuanheng will take over later if you do not do well."

Yue Wenyuan was dazed for a moment, staring blankly at Liu Chengzong, then looked down at the official seal, and then looked up at Liu Chengzong, then he suddenly realized that he quickly bowed down and thanked him.

He hadn't figured it out until he bowed down, how could such an honorable official position of magistrate fly into his arms so easily.

But Liu Chengzong obviously didn't care about this matter. Longzhou is a scattered state, without a county, and a checkpoint with several inspection departments under its jurisdiction. There are only more than 1000 households under its rule, which is not a difficult place to govern.

"You don't need to worry about military matters. If there is a battalion temporarily stationed in Longzhou by Gao Can, you can just stabilize Longzhou."

After Liu Chengzong finished speaking, he reminded: "However, there are many things to worry about in governing a place. It is very difficult for you to take over, and I will not make it difficult for you. I don't want to be meritorious, but I want to be innocent."

"Yes! The villain respectfully obeys the instruction of the commander-in-chief!"

"As for Wen Kui, do you want to stay here to help your brother, or stay in Huben Camp?"

Before Yue Wenkui could speak, Yue Wenyuan raised his head and said, "With the commander, Wenkui is with the commander."

But Yue Wenkui saw Liu Chengzong looking over, thought for a while and said, "I'll listen to the Commander."

Liu Chengzong smiled: "Then follow me."

Walking out of the state government office, Liu Shizi calculated the time. It is estimated that Siyang and Baoji in the south have already been surrounded, and Zhang Yichuan in the west of Qinzhou should also fight with Zuo Liangyu. Then he greeted Yu Linqi, intending to let Gao Yingdeng clean up the mess here, and let people go to order to break out of the camp.

But they didn't expect that before the waiting Habayashi Qi ran to them, they heard the sound of a cannon from the northern suburbs of Longzhou City in the city.

"what happened?"

As soon as Liu Chengzong asked this sentence, he already had the answer in his heart.

Because the cannonade from the north didn't stop, on the contrary, it became more and more intensive, and it was also mixed with patches of gunshots.

There is no doubt that there is a fight.

Soon, a sergeant rode into the city from outside the north gate. It was Gao Yingdeng's Baizong Yingshanhong, who rolled off the saddle and bowed down: "Commander, the enemy army is trying to break out to the south. It seems that they want to go to Liupan Mountain. Blocked at the mountain pass."

Breakout?

Go to Liupan Mountain?

Liu Shizi wondered if there is such a good thing?
This isn't looking for death.

"Wen Kui, go in and tell your brother that Deng Qi is not going to look for Tang Jiuzhou anymore."

After Liu Chengzong finished speaking, he turned his head and said to Ying Shanhong: "Don't stop him, let him go up...someone, go and tell Wang Lushuai on the mountain to guard the mountain road for me. If Tang Jiuzhou comes in, he won't even think about going back!" end of this chapter)