stubborn thief

"Duan Fuxing..."

In the newly built camp under Fengxiang Mansion City, Liu Chengzong read the battle report.

Seeing Duan Fuxing burning the building to die, Liu Chengzong felt a little complicated in his inner peace.

There's admiration and regret, but also a little bit of the joy of adult beauty.

He didn't think Duan Fuxing did something wrong, nor did he think Duan Fuxing was a lunatic. On the contrary, he even felt sympathy for each other.

Essentially, they were all born in the Ming Dynasty and received the same education. Although they had different levels of fame and fame, they were all scholars in the Ming Dynasty. They just had different encounters and took different paths.

This difference obviously does not prevent Liu Shizi from understanding Duan Fuxing's behavior.

In his eyes, Fuxing's death was decisive and tragic, but it was not a bad death. It was the best death he could think of.

Duan Fuxing, a scholar, gained fame, received titles from the imperial court, received the emperor's salary, was an official of the imperial court, and his wife and mother were appointed wives. He pursued success and enjoyed glory and wealth.

When the rebels come, will he survive?

The country is ruined and the family is destroyed, and there is no way to turn things around. Scholars still have the last answer.

This is the destiny he seeks.

Right livelihood.

Liu Shishi specially called Yu Linqi, who was carrying pen and ink, to hand over the battle report and said: "Write it down, Shaanxi Councilor Duan of the Ming Dynasty was revived and guarded Qianzhou. The city was destroyed in the battle... Those who died doing their best are righteous lives." "

After that, he added: "Forget about the destruction of the body."

After the city was broken, Yang Guodong, a newly demoted general under Shi Xiang, immediately searched for Duan Fuxing's whereabouts and learned that he had died in a fight in the city. He found his body and chopped it into eight pieces to vent his anger on the messenger who killed him with a whip, and even dedicated his head to Duan Fuxing. Zhang Xianzhong.

However, the battle report that Zhang Xianzhong sent specifically to Liu Chengzong did not mention the destruction of Duan Fuxing's body at all.

If Wang Wenxiu hadn't sent the battle report from Shi Xiang for comparison, Liu Chengzong wouldn't have known about this situation. For this reason, he sent someone to send a letter to Zhang Xianzhong asking about it.

As for the matter of the body being destroyed, Liu Chengzong would not ask if it was left to others.

Anyway, the ins and outs are very clear. Yang Guodong is a relatively simple person. If he has a grudge or a grudge, he just gets it done.

Shi Xiang was still a little insecure and did not dare to hide the details in the battle report, so he directly reported the truth to Wang Wenxiu.

This is not a big deal in itself, and it doesn't mean much whether you ask or talk about it.

On the contrary, Liu Chengzong realized that Chu Shixiang, the brigade commander, got along well with the newly demoted general Yang Guodong.

The two of them worked together, one facing up and one facing down, one facing inside and one facing outside. They complemented each other well, and maybe they could really squeeze the Lintao Brigade from the third-line troops to the second-line troops of the Commander-in-Chief.

However, Zhang Xianzhong remained silent, so Liu Chengzong had to ask.

After all, Liu Shizi couldn't hold back his expectations for Lao Zhang. They were as low as his toes, so he couldn't be a normal person.

If Zhang Xianzhong didn't take the initiative to say it, Liu Chengzong would never think that he was honest or dishonest.

He hurriedly sent someone to deliver the letter, thinking: Zhang Bingzhong, just don’t eat Duan Fuxing for me!
By chance, Liu Chengzong asked someone to write down Duan Fuxing's story, and the messenger came back with Zhang Xianzhong's letter.

In fact, Zhang Xianzhong felt quite complicated when he saw Liu Chengzong's letter asking about Duan Fuxing's body: it was different from what he thought!
Since Zhang Xianzhong joined the Marshal's Mansion, his biggest hobby has been to figure out Liu Chengzong.

If he were not worried about being misunderstood and accused of plotting rebellion, he would even want to summon his old subordinates to go into the hut and hold a meeting to study Liu Chengzong if nothing happened.

But sometimes there is no use trying to figure it out.

Just like Duan Fuxing, Zhang Xianzhong couldn't figure out whether Liu Chengzong would like it or hate it.

Because Zhang Xianzhong had experienced it himself, he had seen the magistrate of Ming Dynasty defending the city and killing many of his subordinates. The county magistrate had to kill him, but after killing him, he felt very complicated: How many such loyal people would there be if they were his subordinates? good?

So he couldn't figure out Liu Chengzong's views on this matter. It was dynamic. Maybe Liu Shizi felt that the killing was good today, but he would feel that the killing was not good tomorrow.

Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong cleverly made two preparations. On one side, he prepared a limewood box to hold the head. He could just put the head in and send the express. On the other side, he found the second cobbler in the army to collect Duan Fuxing's body. It can be restored to its original state with an order.

Then he sent a battle report to Liu Chengzong, which did not mention Duan Fuxing's body at all. He planned to make his own choice based on Liu Chengzong's attitude in replying to the letter.

Unexpectedly, Liu Shizi once again acted against common sense and wrote back to him directly asking: What happened to Duan Fuxing's body?

Duan Fuxing is now like Schrödinger's cat, jumping between being intact and being shattered into thousands of pieces. How should we, Mr. Zhang, answer this?

I could only bite the bullet and tell the truth: whatever the commander-in-chief wants Duan Fuxing to do, he will do it.

When Liu Chengzong read the letter, he guessed that it was almost the same. He felt relieved at the moment. He flicked the letter and said to himself: "It's better if you don't eat it."

In the Chinese army camp, Wang Wenxiu, who was instructing the painter to outline the enemy's situation on the map, heard him talking to himself, but he didn't hear clearly, so he asked: "Commander?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head, put down the letter with a smile, and said to the messenger: "Go back and tell Zhang Butang that I want Duan Fuxing to be buried in Qianzhou, and ask him not to waste time. Once it's done, he can lead his troops to Fengxiang..."

While they were talking, Wang Wenxiu had already ordered the painter to draw the map around Fengxiang Mansion, and placed wooden plaques marking the military strength on the map, which made Liu Chengzong feel confused.

He couldn't understand at all what the Ming army entrenched to the west of Fengxiang Mansion wanted to do.

During the time when he led his army to move from Xi'an Prefecture to Fengxiang Prefecture, Wang Wenxiu and the Ming army broke out in more than a dozen minor conflicts in Fengxiang Prefecture, basically identifying the Ming army's numbers.

At present, Baoji, Sanguan, Long'an and even Longzhou in the north are all camps set up by the Ming army, gathering more than 3 troops from Changping, Yunnan, Sichuan, Ningxia, Yansui and other places. Wang Wenxiu alone can accurately point out the generals There are six battalions named.

However, this is also what puzzles Liu Shishi the most.

He turned his head and stared at the map, stretched out his hand to point out several Ming army camps, and asked Wang Wenxiu: "What do these people want to do? They surround my point and attack my reinforcements. Are they crazy?"

Surrounding a point for reinforcements is a simple and effective tactic.

Generally speaking, this tactic is very simple to implement. It surrounds the weak and attracts the strong, achieving the purpose of pulling, containing, and annihilating the enemy's forces, while preserving important strongholds of one's own.

But there is another basic condition on top of this, which is to first grasp the initiative in the battle, that is, to have comprehensive intelligence and to be sure of the speed of annihilation.

First of all, it has the deterrent effect of quickly annihilating the besieged army, and secondly, it must have the ability to defeat the reinforcements before encircling the point and launching reinforcements.

Liu Chengzong thought that a large number of Ming troops had entered Fengxiang Mansion by themselves. If they formed a majestic formation and fought a positional battle, Wang Wenxiu's [-]-strong army would not be enough.

But the problem lies in Wang Wenxiu's defense of the fortified city. Not to mention that the Ming army does not have the deterrence to quickly annihilate Wang Wenxiu. Even if Liu Chengzong comes to fight, he is not sure of this.Secondly, if the Ming army did not know anything about the intelligence from the east, it was hearsay at best.

As the saying goes, a hundred cavalry divided into sheets can cover thousands of people; a thousand cavalry divided into sheets can make a profit of hundreds of miles.

In the three hundred miles of Qinchuan in the west of the Guanzhong Plain, a full seven thousand Mongolian cavalry were divided into troops and herding horses on the plains. Every village and every important road was under their surveillance.

It would be easy for the Ming army's large army to drive them away, but it would undoubtedly be a fantasy for a small group of messenger cavalry to cross the Guanzhong plateau silently.

In this case, surround the spot and call for help?
Liu Chengzong would rather believe that the Ming army was showing off their power, planning to sell themselves at a good price, hoping that he would come over to pay them; he would not believe that the Ming army was surrounding Luo Rucai here, hoping to help him.

After all, Liu Shizi is now strong, and he still has a bunch of new surrender troops who can be thrown to the front line of the battlefield to show their loyalty. He is not afraid of the Ming army attacking the city, nor is he afraid of the Ming army fighting in the field.

There was only one thing that made Liu Chengzong look frightened when he thought about it. He asked Wang Wenxiu: "They are camped in the west, don't they... want to surrender to me?"

Wang Wenxiu was guarding Fengxiang Mansion and had never been afraid of facing [-] Ming troops alone. But after hearing the Generalissimo's words, his face turned green and he quickly shook his head: "No way? No, it shouldn't be the case. The Generalissimo is worrying too much."

Fengxiang Mansion was the food storage camp for the Marshal's army for this Eastern Expedition. Wang Wenxiu was in charge of both the army and the government. Liu Shizi had all the food and grass in his hands.

At present, the marshal's army is showing off its power in the pass, but no one knows better than Wang Wenxiu that they are strong on the outside and capable on the inside.

Originally, Fengxiang Mansion had sufficient grain reserves, and the income from Changpingcang and wealthy households in various places was almost as much as the Marshal's Mansion's income in the past year.

Enough for 4 marshal's troops to last until winter.

However, with the victory of two battles in the east, there were nearly [-] more mouths, and rations were distributed to the nine battalions of Li Zicheng and Zhang Yichuan. Now Fengxiang Mansion's rations can support this larger army, and it will be stretched even until the end of July.

Especially when Wang Wenxiu met Liu Shizi and found out that the handsome man had sent Zhang Zhen back to his hometown to recruit traitors. Even though he was young and strong, his heart was pounding and he was about to fall ill.

As one of the generals closest to Liu Chengzong in the Marshal's Office, Wang Wenxiu had heard from Liu Chengzong's judgment on Gansu's surrender more than once in the past.

It is said that their territory is too small and their production capacity is too weak. Even if they capture Gansu, they will not be able to support the tens of thousands of surrendered troops in Gansu. They will eventually be pushed in an uncontrollable direction by the army.

But later their territory expanded, and Gansu’s terrible prophecy did not come true.

But now in Guanzhong, Wang Wenxiu felt that the prophecy was getting closer and closer to them.

However, Liu Chengzong just said casually that he was just afraid that his food reserves would not be enough to eat. The Ming army was currently stationed in the west of Fengxiang Mansion in a very organized manner, and it did not seem that they were planning to surrender.

Seeing Wang Wenxiu's nervousness, Liu Shishi chuckled, and then said seriously: "I think they have more important things to do. Is there anything more important than annihilating Luo Rucai in Baoji City?"

Wang Wenxiu followed this train of thought and asked, "Military rations?"

Liu Chengzong nodded slowly: "They must be out of food and want to give it a try... How long will our army have enough food?"

"Eat it all in July. Too many troops have been sent down, making it difficult to raise them."

This answer was a bit difficult for Wang Wenxiu to say. He suggested: "Commander, the top priority is to break the city of Xi'an. Otherwise, our army will have to drink from the northwest wind in two months at most."

"Oh?"

Liu Chengzong turned around and glanced at Wang Wenxiu in surprise: "Didn't you read the letter I gave you carefully? There was a message from Wei Qian'er that there was not much food in Xi'an, and Chen Qiyu had transported all the food into Tongguan."

After that, he raised his hand and pointed at the northern part of Xi'an Prefecture on the map and said: "The places where there is food now are Pucheng, Tongzhou, Hancheng and other places on the north bank of the Wei River. There is no point in attacking Xi'an... We have to let Chen Qiyu take the food." Then move back from Tongguan."

"Even if we don't move, we still have to wait until the autumn harvest, so that Huazhou and other places in Weinan will have food and grass available."

Wang Wenxiu was surprised and asked, "How to move back?"

"It depends on what Li Zicheng and Zhang Yichuan are capable of. They are making a big fuss in Henan. We are less of a threat in Guanxi. Naturally, they are the two evils. Sooner or later, they will move the food back to Xi'an Fucheng."

"Anyway..."

Liu Shizi stopped looking at Xi'an Mansion and only focused on Fengxiang, saying: "We have more food than them, let's first see what kind of medicine they sell in their gourds!"

As the commander-in-chief's will was conveyed to all the battalions of the Marshal's Army, within three days, the Marshal's Army and the Ming Army faced off in Fengxiang Mansion.

There was no communication messenger, and no one took the lead in attacking. There were only Tangqi who came and went shooting, infiltrating, fighting, and retreating at each other on the river bank.

However, the strange thing is that the increasingly fierce skirmishes have never escalated the battle. Whenever the Ming army tried to cross the river with a large force of more than a hundred people from the south bank of the Wei River and pursue Marshal Jun Tangqi to the north bank, large areas of Tangqi would appear in Under the cover of the Mongolian cavalry, they retreated like a tide.

It was not Tangqi's style of slowly retreating to prepare for encirclement and annihilation, but instead shrinking the defense line regardless.

On the first day, Zuo Liangyu calmed down.

The next day, he couldn't stand it anymore.

On the third day, Zuo Liangyu once again received the news that the Marshal's Army did not respond to the challenge. Zuo Liangyu was so angry that he threw everything he could in the tent.

Their default battlefield was the north bank of the Wei River. Because there was Baoji City on the south bank, no one could tell whether Luo Rucai in the city would dare to jump out during the battle.

There is also a problem on the north bank. In terms of tactics for attacking Liu Chengzong, it is difficult for the cavalry to move quickly on the south bank, so they need to use the gradually escalating conflict as an excuse to slowly move the army to the north bank.

Otherwise, the invitation to fight would be too obvious, and Mr. Liu Chengzong would be worried about being defensive.

But what's good now is that the marshal's army will not escalate the fight at all. The meaning is clear. If you are willing to cross the river, don't do it in small groups. I will give you the river bank and just cross in large groups. I will kick you into the river while you are halfway across.

Only this fool crossed the river!

"Back off, back off, just fucking know how to back off!"

Zuo Liangyu was so angry in the tent that he cursed loudly, summoned his servants and said, "Go and ask Cao Wenzhao, our army still has seven days of rations left, whether we can fight this battle or not!"

As soon as the servant left, Luo Rucai's daily curses were sent to him.

Luo Rucai in Baoji City defeated Kangning's invincible opponents, relying on Liu Chengzong's words and deeds: in war, you must put yourself in someone else's shoes. If the enemy wants to do something, you can't let him do it; if the enemy doesn't want to do something, you have to force him to do it.

Luo Rucai didn't know what it meant that more than 3 Ming troops were surrounding him, but it was obvious that they did not want to attack the city.

So since he discovered that Zuo Liangyu did not dare to attack the city, Luo Rucai adopted the attitude of "I am your ancestor" and used bows and arrows to shoot letters outside the city every day. The letters contained nothing but curses.

Whenever one of the Ming army generals in the city was recognized, Luo Rucai would have people scold them without hesitation. From the ancestors to the descendants, he summed up his spirit in one word: coward!
If you dare not attack my city, you are a coward!
When had Zuo Liangyu been pointed at the nose and scolded like this?

At this time, he was angry again, and he immediately slapped his palm on the table: "No matter what, tell Cao Wenzhao, Ai Wannian and Long Zaitian that I am going to attack the city. First kill Luo Cao and Cao Jiqi in the city!" ( End of this chapter)