The white porridge and pickled mustard is enough, why am I wearing a royal robe?

Chapter 178 Emperor Chongzhen tastes the meal of heavenly soldiers

He Renlong's defeat was faster than imagined.

Chen Qiyu had a dark face. It was obvious that even the death row strategy was useless. He listened to the report from his men and found that He Renlong had done a good job. People died in the city and people died in the city.

It's not that our army is weak, it's that the enemy is too powerful.

The Kitchen King is not only powerful in plain warfare, but also powerful in siege.

With Kitchen King's long-distance assassination tool, the generals on the city had no time to take into account the battle situation and how to command and dispatch. He Renlong was smart enough to know how to give it a go when the enemy attacked the city, and fought with them. The enemy generals fought hard to overwhelm each other, but they were helpless because the threat of Kitchen King was all-pervasive.

Unfortunately failed in the end.

As a result, the entire Heshui County fell in less than a day.

"It doesn't take more than a day," Chen Qiyu sighed, but after thinking about it for a moment, it seemed that the Stove King never took more than a day to attack a city, even the capital city of Yan'an.

Heshui, a small county town that doesn't even have a Wengcheng, is doing well for being able to sustain it for such a long time.

Although He Renlong's speed of defeat surprised Chen Qiyu, the result of the defeat did not exceed Chen Qiyu's expectations.

Soldiers and horses from Henan and Shanxi are already rushing here, as are the other two provinces.

Zao Wang takes Heshui. If he is more prudent, he will attack the two counties above and below Heshui. If he is more aggressive, he will probably attack Qingyang directly.

However, no matter which direction the attack is, Kitchen King will eventually fall into their siege.

At most, the Kitchen King retreats to Heshui.

When the time comes, tens of thousands of troops will attack, and the Kitchen King will be unable to save himself even with his magical weapons.

Chen Qiyu could only think like this without hesitation.

If it fails this time, there is no need to wait for the emperor to resign.

He, Chen Qiyu, simply committed suicide and had no shame in going to see the emperor.

The emperor placed all his hopes on him.

"This time, among the three hundred and fifty people who killed one enemy, the one who deserved the most credit was Li Zi, who killed ten enemies."

Wang Wu and Wang Jiachang reported the results of the Tianbing Township Yong Militia respectively.

In this battle, more than 500 enemies were wiped out, but there were many people who were promoted to heavenly soldiers, hundreds of them. It was not that three people were killed and a hundred people were killed, but there were many who had accumulated military exploits.

Among them, the one who killed the most killed ten people. "Bring it here, let me take a look."

Liu Zhenhua was quite surprised. The fact that ten people were killed in this battle showed that this person was a fighting material, and the fact that he only killed ten people this time meant that he had joined recently.

Otherwise, with this person's ability, he should have emerged long ago.

Not long after, the two of them came over accompanied by a man who looked quite cheerful.

"Military plum, see Kitchen King."

When the latter saw Liu Zhenhua, he immediately knelt on the ground and saluted.

"Get up, you're doing well, what did you do before?" Liu Zhenhua stared at Qiu Jiu in front of him. The latter's figure didn't look too tall, but he was of the muscular type.

"Returning to the Stove King, the common people used to be laborers for the landlord's family. Fortunately, the Stove King killed the landlord, and the common people had the opportunity to work for the Stove King."

Li Zi replied.

Liu Zhenhua nodded slightly and stared at Li Zi thoughtfully. It seemed that he didn't care about the promotion of his subordinates or anything else, but he still knew about some of the more prominent ones.

For example, Li Zi is relatively well trained.

Therefore, he was promoted from Xiangyong to militia.

Now, if ten people are killed and rewarded based on merit, this person will at least become a squad leader.

To say that being a squad leader is a bit of an underachievement, after all, killing ten people in the first battle, this kind of talent can at least command a hundred people.

The kind that can take down a small county with a hundred people.

It might be more appropriate to be a company commander, a platoon commander, and a company commander.

Moreover, this person is not only good at martial arts. Every time Liu Zhenhua sees someone with outstanding performance, the other person will be trembling with fear, somewhat nervous and excited.

When facing him, he couldn't answer questions neatly.

On the other hand, this person didn't feel nervous at all when I saw him. Although he had a smile on his face and seemed to be happy, this calm demeanor, placed in a place where talents are scarce, would make him a regiment commander or even a brigade commander. Not excessive.

When Liu Zhenhua thought of this, he felt something was wrong.

This guy is doing so well.

It’s no wonder that Liu Zhenhua is suspicious, his character here is originally the reincarnation of a god, with the ability to change.

Although some people who didn't believe it, or who had read some books or had some education, didn't believe it before seeing it, so they were still unruly and unyielding when they saw him, without any nervousness at all.

But this man, as a rural warrior who was promoted to the militia, must have seen his methods long ago, and the most important thing is that this man is a laborer.

Force workers are also a type of people at the bottom of the class.

Not much culture.

Combining these two points, this should not be the case when seeing him.

Even if he is a born commander, he cannot escape this law before he has grown up and has no platform for him to display his skills.

"I will appoint you as squad leader for the time being."

Liu Zhenhua made a decision after pondering for a while.

He couldn't think of anything he could do if this person came here with a purpose. Mainly, those possibilities were beyond his control.

Whether it's assassination, instigating rebellion after ascending to a high position, or collecting intelligence here.

After hearing Liu Zhenhua's words, Li Zi lowered his head and knocked directly on the ground, "Thank you to the Stove King for your appreciation. Li Zi will definitely live up to the Stove King's expectations."

Although his voice still sounded joyful, Liu Zhenhua felt that this man's joy was not sincere due to his preconceptions.

"Others, rewards based on merit, and promotions that should be promoted, you decide, so I don't need to say more."

Liu Zhenhua looked at the other heavenly soldiers generals.

Whoever the militiamen and rural warriors are assigned to after promotion, except those with special abilities, such as those with strong strength, those who are good at riding horses, and those who can run fast, these are directly assigned to special arms.

The rest were allocated by a few heavenly soldiers commanders themselves.

Late at night, a dove flies towards the north, and in another place, a fast horse flies northward.

"The city site is rectangular, five miles from east to west, three miles from north to south, and surrounded by rivers on three sides. The moat alone is thirty steps wide."

The next day, Liu Zhenhua sat down and talked with Huang County Magistrate.

Originally, according to Magistrate Huang's character, he shouldn't talk to Liu Zhenhua like this. However, under Liu Zhenhua's rule, all officials who are next to Liu Zhenhua can enjoy the heavenly soldiers' meal.

Yesterday, County Magistrate Huang thought Liu Zhenhua was going to host a banquet to entertain him. Who knew, but he directly asked him to stand with the Heavenly Soldiers and even the Heavenly Soldiers officials.

The county magistrate was immediately impressed by Liu Zhenhua's skill in transformation.

"Besides, Qingyang Prefecture has Qingcheng in the north and Ningxian in the south. If you, the Kitchen King, want to take Qingyang directly, you may fall into a pincer attack."

Magistrate Huang knew that Liu Zhenhua might want to take Qingyang directly. Hence some of his suggestions are given.

"There is a moat, which is troublesome."

Qingyang is already a big city, five miles long from east to west and three miles from north to south, which is larger than Yan'an.

In addition, it is surrounded by rivers on three sides, which makes the attack more difficult.

The opponent is still plotting something right now. If they cannot attack for a long time, they will easily fall into a dangerous situation.

"Does Magistrate Huang have any suggestions?"

Liu Zhenhua asked.

"If the Kitchen King had captured Qingcheng or Ningxian first, the defenses of these two cities would not even be as good as Heshui. However, it was only when the governor did not set up defenses. Now, Qingcheng and Ningxian should be even more heavily defended."

"Having said that, the height and length of the city wall are still flaws and are not something that can be changed in a short time."

"On the other hand, Kitchen King can also strengthen Heshui's defense. If the opponent sees that Kitchen King does not intend to attack Qingyang, he will probably send troops to counterattack, and he will have to defend."

Magistrate Huang gave two suggestions.

Liu Zhenhua nodded slightly. He had exactly this intention. The other party frequently had troops coming in and out, presumably to report the news here to the capital.

Emperor Chongzhen would definitely not let him continue to grow in Qin.

However, no matter how we deal with him, we cannot do without sending troops.

It's nothing more than encirclement, flanking and delaying.

Liu Zhenhua has already captured Heshui, the county seat of Heshui. There is a vast no-man's land to the east. There is only one official road in and out, and the rest are almost all scattered trails.

The north and south are together with Qingcheng and Ning County.

After making some calculations in his mind, Liu Zhenhua quickly made a decision to capture Qingcheng in the north first.

When the opponent sends troops, whether it is mobilizing troops from other provinces, or mobilizing elites from the capital or the Liao border, going south from the northeast, and going north from the south, there is no need for Ning County to take action to capture Qingcheng.

"Magistrate Huang, I will leave full authority to you to strengthen the city wall of Heshui County."

Liu Zhenhua smiled.

County Magistrate Huang stood up and bowed, "Don't worry, Kitchen King. Reinforcing the city wall and providing work in exchange for relief is a good thing that benefits the people."

As a county magistrate, he knows best how the people under his command are living.

In the past year, although there has been rain and snow, it has been light rain and light snow, and it has not fallen during the farming season.

This kind of rain and snow can only prevent the rivers from drying up and turning the land into desert, but it cannot support the growth of the banker at all.

The people will have no harvest this year.

Now that the city wall is being reinforced, the Kitchen King has given enough money and food support to provide relief work, which is a great thing to benefit the people. Now he is also given full authority to manage it. This makes Huang County Magistrate very touched, and the Kitchen King has not broken his promise.

"After many inquiries from humble officials, I found out that the Kitchen King once had an entanglement with the two girls of the Zhao family, and he might have been fond of women."

"The Stove King has never personally entered the battle to kill the enemy. He often uses magic weapons and sharp weapons. He has a black magic weapon, which is more than three feet long and looks like a fire blunderbuss. When it is fired, it makes a thunderous sound. It can kill enemies from a hundred steps away, or even five hundred steps away. It is extremely accurate and never misses. However, through humble observation, this magic weapon is heavy and not good at close combat. The other magic weapon is four feet long and even heavier. It requires a chariot and horse to move it around. This thing is even less good at close combat. , therefore, the Kitchen King’s weakness lies in close combat.”

"Furthermore, the Kitchen King is close to the people and relatives, and rarely sets up defenses for his subordinates."

"Under the rule of the Stove King, there are no captains of centurions or captains of thousands, but squad leaders and platoon leaders. The squad leader has ten people, the platoon leader has fifty, and the company commander has one hundred."

"When he was promoted to squad leader, he was five steps away from the Kitchen King. He had a sharp weapon hidden in his body. If he got angry, he would be 100% sure to stab the Kitchen King to death."

"Under the rule of the Kitchen King, rewards are given based on merit. Today there are frequent wars, so there are countless opportunities for this."

"Judging from the humble position, if the temptation fails, the Kitchen King may be assassinated."

Emperor Chongzhen listened to Jiang Xin's report and found out that the Stove King was weak in fighting at close range, which made Emperor Chongzhen heave a sigh of relief.

This sentence can be regarded as a guarantee, and it directly turned the Kitchen King who was originally uncontrollable into a monkey who could not escape from Tathagata Buddha's Wuzhi Mountain.

The Stove King was already in his hands. If he was tempted or even lowered his body to invite him, Emperor Chongzhen could have the hidden man ambushing the Stove King kill him at any time.

"You're doing well."

Emperor Chongzhen was very satisfied.

Hearing this, Jiang Xin knelt on the ground, "Everything I have is given by the emperor."

"Your Majesty, things are hot."

During the conversation, an old eunuch stood at the door and hunched over.

"Send it up."

"Yes."

The old eunuch said 'hmm' towards the door, and immediately, two young eunuchs came in carrying three trays and placed them on the prepared desk.

Jiang Xin's eyes moved slightly. There were many meals on the table. The one on the far left seemed to be eggs and white porridge. The other one seemed to be white porridge, a bowl of dark stuff, and a small plate that seemed to be pickles.

The most obvious one in the middle is a piece of pork rice, and several other items are included in the three meals.

The ones on the right are much less, and some of them are the same as those in the previous two copies.

This seems to be the meal transformed by Kitchen King.

The two little eunuchs took chopsticks and tasted them one after another.

Silver needles are sometimes useless when testing poison, but people are the most useful.

The two of them had already tried poison, and trying it again now only made Emperor Chongzhen feel more at ease.

After about half an hour, the poison was gone. Emperor Chongzhen picked up some pork with chopsticks and put it in his mouth to taste it.

This was delivered by my subordinates on a fast horse. The person who came on the fast horse had frostbite in his eyes. Fortunately, the weather in the north was cold. If it had been in the south, it would have been rotten long ago.

Although the taste has lost three points now, Emperor Chongzhen, who was used to eating delicacies from the mountains and seas, was still surprised after eating this food transformed by the Stove King.

He sighed in his heart, the Kitchen King could instantly produce thousands of such meals, and his men had these delicacies for three meals a day.

No wonder the Kitchen King is so popular.

Thousands of meals a day, tens of thousands of meals, what a huge expense.

Even his treasury cannot support him to eat these three meals a day.

Kitchen King, Kitchen King, what a talent.

With this talent, Ming Dynasty will definitely prosper.

Emperor Chongzhen sighed and waved his hand. The two young eunuchs had been taken away by the old eunuch. Outside, there were flashes of swords and shadows, and in the deep palace courtyard, people were dying every day.

The two young eunuchs are gone and no one knows about them.

"Put these three meals into the cold kiln, heat them up tomorrow, and present them to the court."

Emperor Chongzhen ordered that he let the ministers taste the food transformed by the Kitchen King.

(End of this chapter)