Chapter 253 Preparation

Li Pu and He Zhaojie hid in a corner outside Gaoyou Mansion, listening to the crackling of firecrackers in the city, and their mood gradually faded. They left the city in the middle of the night and had been anxiously waiting for the timidity in the city.

Can the lame general lead thousands of soldiers who have been confiscated to take back Gaoyou Mansion? Both of them were not sure, but listening to the noise in the Gaoyou Mansion, I'm afraid it was a failure.

When it was dawn, the sound of fire gradually faded, and finally, it was gone.

"Lord Li, let's go!" He Zhaojie advised that if Li Pu was found missing in Gaoyou Mansion for a while and sent cavalry out to search, I'm afraid he would get the same result as timidity.

Li Pu did not hesitate. If he had the courage, he would not run out with He Zhaojie.

A lonely carriage walked the path and drove south.

"Ruohan, when you are in confinement, don't touch the cold water. If there is anything, leave it to others." After Zhang Yang got up in the morning, he exercised in the yard. When he came back, he found that Ruohan had given him the washing water.

"Brother Shicheng, I'm all right. Besides, I'm just washing my face." Liu Ruohan said.

"That doesn't work either. If you don't take good care of it now, you will fall into the root of the disease in the future." Zhang Yang looked at Ruo Han, who was still a little pale, and said.

Today is only the tenth day after giving birth. Ruo Han can't stay for a long time. She always wants to do this and that, but yes, this is the longest time to stay with her. Of course, she wants to do something for herself.

"Brother, brother, there is an emergency." Outside the door, a guard shouted anxiously: "There is someone from Gaoyou Mansion. There is an emergency military report to the eldest brother."

"Let him wait in the living room. I'll be there right there." Zhang Yanggang put the towel on his face, and the sound from his mouth passed by the towel, with some changes.

Liu Ruohan was shocked: Is there an emergency military situation in Gaoyou Prefecture? She looked at Shicheng's brother's back, and she was afraid that she would leave in a hurry this time. She really wanted to go up. She hugged Brother Shicheng's broad waist from behind and told him not to leave. However, Liu Ruohan didn't do that. She couldn't hold off Brother Shicheng.

Zhang Yang simply washed his face and turned his head to look at Ruohan: "Ruohan, I'll go out for a while."

"Wait!" Ruo Han helped Zhang Yang straighten the corners of his clothes: "I'm already a senior official. I have to pay attention to my appearance."

Zhang Yang glanced at the child who was still asleep at the head of the bed again and walked out quickly.

"Big brother." The messenger has been going back and forth in the living room a few times. Seeing Zhang Yang coming, he quickly said, "There is an accident in Gaoyou Mansion. Mr. Shi, please go back quickly."

"What's wrong?" Zhang Yang asked.

"The arsenal was blown up, and dozens of private houses were burned in Gaoyou Mansion. Moreover, all the tars imprisoned in the camp ran out."

"What?" Zhang Yang was moved: "Did the tars run out? Can you run outside the High Post Office?

"No, all of them have been eliminated in the city, just..."

"What is it just?"

"It's just that I don't know where Li Pu is. Mr. Shi is searching for people from door to door in Gaoyou Mansion."

Li Pu ran away? Zhang Yang frowned. He originally wanted to keep this chess piece, but he didn't expect that what was left were bombs and those tartars. Why did they all happen all in one night? There must be something wrong in the middle!

However, accountability is the future. Now the most important thing is to deal with the impending situation.

Li Pu ran away. The worst possibility was to run back to the province. The province may let Zhu Yuanzhang go and besiege himself with all his strength, because the arbitrary imprisonment of Fu Yin and Dalu Huachi was the face of the province. After all, he still obeyed the rule of the province, but he did this kind of thing. The province could never swallow it.

"Guard, guard." Zhang Yang shouted.

"Brother, what's the matter?" Two people standing guard outside came in.

"Sect four teams of ten, ride fast horses, and report immediately."

"Yes, big brother." With that, the two of them were about to leave.

"Wait, I haven't told anyone to report it!" Zhang Yang couldn't help scolding. He has been with him for half a year and is still so brainless.

"Yes, big brother."

"Give back to the salt farm, Taizhou and the base respectively, let the salt farm and Taizhou be more vigilant, send a wide range of scouts, and strictly prevent the attack of the Tartars!" Zhang Yang said, "Let the base step up the production of gunpowder and make up for the losses of Gaoyou Prefecture. It will be found in Shixin outside. Don't transport salt in the near future."

"Also, call Lv Zhen to me quickly and give him a task."

"Yes," the guard hurried out. Something big must have happened. The eldest brother's face was so ugly.

After a while, Lv Zhen came in a hurry. He was patrolling the city defense at the head of the city.

"Brother, what's the matter?" Lu Zhen asked.

"I'm going back to Gaoyou Mansion. Everything here is up to you." Zhang Yang said.

"Brother is leaving so soon?" Lv Zhen said, "I thought the eldest brother would stay with his sister-in-law for a few more days."

"I want to, too! However, something big happened to Gaoyou Mansion. Zhang Yang said, "You have to strengthen the vigilance of Xinghua and send many sentries to patrols, especially in the south. No matter how many tars come, you have to resist me. If you fall into Xinghua City, you don't want to come back to see me."

Lv Zhen's face was shrill: "Yes, brother, don't worry, we have 5,000 elite soldiers, and the guard Xinghua pokes more than pokes."

"In addition to Xinghua, we should also pay attention to the base of Shenghu. Now there are only two hundred-person teams stationed in the murder port. You send two more hundred-person teams to go there, and I will transfer part of Yuanheng's navy. In short, there must be no problem!"

"Yes, big brother." Lv Zhen's eyes were shining. Half a year's comfortable life did not wear out everyone's teeth. Especially after expanding the manpower, everyone was accumulating strength, rubbing their hands, and waiting for the moment of counterattacking the Tutars. Now, it is finally going to war again.

Zhang Yang arranged everything here and returned directly to Gaoyoufu from Xinghua.

Since the tars in Gaoyou Mansion have been wiped out, it can be regarded as the face of the Hexing Province, and there is no need to settle down in Xinghua. You can take your mother and Ruohan to Gaoyou Mansion. Gaoyou Mansion has its own base camp. The city is tall, and there is a water army battalion outside the city. The newly equipped artillery is also on the wall. Even if there are 100,000 tars, it is guaranteed that he will have no return. However, Ruohan had just given birth to a child and must not suffer from the wind and cold. Zhang Yang didn't want Ruohan to be burdened, so he had to leave her in Xinghua.

The pre-war atmosphere immediately became tense.

Returning to Gaoyou Mansion, Zhang Yang immediately found Shi Nai'an.

Shi Nai'an was very ashamed. Since he was moved by Bian Yuanheng and followed Zhang Shicheng, he has always been an unpredictable prophet. Unconsciously, he has always regarded himself as Wu Yong in his work. In fact, although the lord did not give himself this In his position, he is already a de facto military division of the whole army. When the lord is away, he can even mobilize all kinds of troops. The power given by the lord is very great.

Shi Nai'an has also been planning for the future of this army. Just two days ago, he was still thinking about expanding the territory and developing to the south. Unexpectedly, it has not been carried out externally, but there is something wrong internally.

The tars, who had been controlled, suddenly got into trouble. If it hadn't been for the random response and sent back Shi Laoer's troops in charge of surveillance in time, it would have almost made a big mistake.

Now, Shi Nai'an looked at the master's face and didn't know if the master would give himself unpleasant words. If it's true, it has to be next to each other. The lord goes to Xinghua. As the highest leader of the left-behind, of course, the responsibility is his own.

"Mr. Shi, that Li Pu, haven't you heard from him yet?" Zhang Yang asked, and there was no blame in his words.

"The whole city has been searched. If it is not unexpected, Li Pu has escaped." Shi Nai'an said that there was no blame in the Lord's words, and Shi Nai'an was a little relieved.

"Let Guanzhong be responsible and focus on the trends of Yangzhou. I suspect that Li Pu has returned to Yangzhou." Zhang Yang said.

"Lord, I have an inescapable responsibility for this incident." Shi Nai'an said that even if the lord did not blame, he must bear what he should bear.

"We are not prophets. We can't guarantee that we won't make mistakes in many things, but we should learn from every mistake." Zhang Yang said, "I am also responsible for the sudden disaster of the tars this time. After half a year, we have relaxed our vigilance against the tars. The trapped beasts are still fighting. We underestimate the tars a little. At any time, we can't underestimate our opponents. We must despise our opponents strategically and pay attention to them tactically. Only on this road can we go further!"

"The lord makes a lot of sense." Shi Nai'an was shocked by Zhang Yang's two words just now: strategic contempt for the opponent, tactical attention to the opponent, must not relax, thinking that with advanced weapons, you can win the war, it is very dangerous, it is the people who decide the victory or defeat of the war.

"Now, what I suspect most is that our city gate at night is sealed. If we are timid to leave, I can understand it. However, Li Pu has left. He is a civil servant who has obediently listened to our orders, which shows that there are their internal response in Gaoyou Mansion." Zhang Yang said.

Shi Nai'an also has a hunch that the city government is very deep. He must have been lurking in Gaoyou Mansion for a long time and arranged everything very carefully. First, he blew up the arsenal of arsenal, and then robbed Li Pu and timidly. Then, all the tartars in the camp dug tunnels and drilled out, almost making the situation of Gaoyou Mansion out of control. This Is everything a coincidence? Absolutely impossible.

"Let Guanzhong be responsible for this matter. We used to only pay attention to the intelligence outside, and we should also establish an intelligence agency for ourselves." Zhang Yang said, "If Li Pu escapes this time, he will not fly out with wings. At least some of the soldiers guarding the Acropolis Gate were bribed by them."

Zhang Yang doesn't want to set up an organization like Jinyiwei, which is above all officials. The political chaos in the late Ming Dynasty has a lot to do with the behavior of Jinyiwei. However, now the scale of the army is getting bigger and bigger, and a supervision mechanism has to be established, although it has been checked from the selection of troops. However, people's hearts will change. When there is an opportunity to get rich, it is difficult to guarantee that no one will take risks. How did Li Pu get there? The gates are all good, and some guards must have been bought by him.

If you want to find out, it is also very simple. As long as you secretly investigate, the gate guard can spend a lot of money recently, and you can follow the vine and find out the internal annihire. For such people, they must be severely punished! The army should be strictly governed, otherwise, once the military discipline is relaxed, the army will have no combat effectiveness.

In addition to severely punishing the gate guards who have fornication with the enemy, there is another way to educate the soldiers to keep this string in their brains: they are the children and soldiers of the people and the protectors of the people. They pick up the sky, not to get promoted and get rich, but to drive away the Tatars and establish A new country.

Shi Naian was shocked. He didn't expect this section. There must be something wrong with a small number of people in the team. In addition to what the master just said, for example, why didn't the soldiers patrol the night find someone wandering outside the arsenal in the middle of the night?

"Lord, all the soldiers of the arsenal have been killed in the explosion. Among them, there should be no internal annihibition." Shi Nai'an followed Zhang Yang's thoughts and analyzed.

"Except for the certainty of the city gate, we are not sure. Before we have a firm grasp, we can't arrest people by guess alone. Otherwise, we will lose our military spirit." Zhang Yang said, "The rest of the doubts, such as the soldiers in charge of the vigil that night, are all allowed to be investigated secretly. We can't wrong the soldiers."

Zhang Yang clearly remembered that during the Anti-Japanese War, how destructive the top-down purge operation would be. The Red Army was forced to make a long march. In addition to the wrong left-leaning route, it was related to the loss of a large number of experienced commanders caused by the cleansing movement. He doesn't want to do the same wrong thing.

"We must take military discipline seriously. We must always tighten the strings in our minds. We must not relax our vigilance before completely driving away the Tutars." Zhang Yang said.

"Yes, the lord is right." Shi Nai'an said.

"In addition to these problems, we must now be prepared to deal with the worst." Zhang Yang said.

"Yes, my lord, that's why I hurried to find my lord back." Shi Nai'an returned to normal: "If Li Pu goes back, there will definitely be a big move in the province, and it will be a big move."

"Go on." Zhang Yang said that his idea coincided with Shi Nai'an.

"At present, the province is mainly dealing with Zhu Yuanzhang in Chuzhou. For half a year, there has been no progress. The terrain of Chuzhou is complex, and the Tatars can't take advantage of it, and Zhu Yuanzhang is too good at fighting. After getting the news from here, the tars will definitely lead the army back and strangle us in the bud.

"Isn't the tar afraid that Zhu Yuanzhang will take Yangzhou?"

"In the east of Chuzhou, there are all mountains, with only a few exits. As long as the tars send some soldiers and horses to guard the exit, it will not be easy for Zhu Yuanzhang to come out, and it is almost certain that the large troops will come back to deal with us." Shi Nai'an said.

"Why?"

"Because we have violated the bottom line of the tars." Shi Nai'an said that when we made this decision, we knew that once the secret was leaked, it must be the result.

"In order to defend the fruits of our revolution, we will not hesitate to fight!" Zhang Yang said, "I have ordered that Taizhou, salt field, base and Xinghua have begun to make pre-war preparations. Now that things have happened, we will no longer hide our strength and let the Tartars see that we not only have the ability to seize Gaoyou Mansion, but also have the ability to fight to the south of the Yangtze River!"

Shi Nai'an's eyes lit up. The lord is indeed not in the pool. He can rise up strongly in Xinghua. In addition to advanced weapons, his courage is also outstanding. The lord has already aimed at the south of the Yangtze River, right?

"Yes, Lord, I will immediately put Gaoyou Mansion into a state of combat readiness."

"Well, our Gaoyou Mansion will bear the main force of the tars, and the arsenal has just been burned. I have ordered the base to step up the production of ammunition and ship it here." Zhang Yang said.

"Brother, our battle will be shocking. What if the court is angry and sends a large army to encircle and suppress us?"

"It should come sooner or later. After half a year of development, we have more sufficient strength. If the tars dare to come to our trouble again this time, we will definitely let them have no return!" Zhang Yang said, "Now, the uprisings around us have entered the trough. It's time for us to shake our arms. The Gaoyou Mansion we occupy is only a small place. If we want to achieve greater development, we can only cross the Yangtze River and occupy most of the south! Turn it into our solid base.

"The Lord is wise." Now that the lord has made his position clear, the next thing is to prepare to welcome the attacking tars. To repel the attacking tars, with the afterglow of victory, cross the Yangtze River and march into the Pingjiang River!

Shi Nai'an's eyes are already full of longing.

I don't know when the tartar will come? According to the speed of the tars, I'm afraid it will take half a month to gather enough strength, right?

In Yangzhou City, provincial officials are holding a celebration banquet.

Since Youcheng took away tens of thousands of elite soldiers, the defense of Yangzhou City has become more and more cramped. Through the request to the imperial court, he ordered the provincial Pingzhang political affairs to recruit strong men in Huainan, Huaibei and other places, and led the Han army. Through the efforts of the past half a year, nearly 50,000 strong men were finally recruited, stationed in Huai'an, and trained them. It is already a force that can stand alone.

In order to commend his merits, Yan Zhe Du held a banquet in the government office and invited Dazhi to be happy. In addition to Dazhi, there were other officials in Yangzhou, including Zhao Lian, a political affairs officer in Huaixi, and the deputy envoy of Huaixi, and Pingzhang's political affairs. ( In the official system of the Yuan Dynasty, there are two Pingzhang political affairs in each province, from the first grade) "Lord Tie Mu'er can summon so many soldiers this time to defend the safety of the province, which is indeed the glory of our province. I suggest that everyone have a cup of respect." Zhe Du said. .

"Where, where, it is also because of the kindness of the court that so many soldiers can be gathered this time. The people are grateful to the court and hate those bandits, so they came to join our army." Tie Mu'er said, "We should respect the emperor first with this glass of wine."

"Yes, to the emperor." Zhe Du stood up, and the wine glass rushed north. Everyone also stood up and drank it all at once.

After three rounds of drinking, it became lively. Zhao Lian suggested, "Everyone is so happy. Why don't you ask some women to sing and dance to cheer up?"

"Yes, yes." Wine and women are very attractive to men.

"Your Excellency, my lord, it's not a big deal!" Suddenly, a guard hurried in.

"Don't you see the banquet being held? What's wrong with you in such a panic? Before Zhe Du could speak, Zhao Lian scolded.

"Your Excellency, my lord, something really happened. General Ji Fuhua died in the battle! Lord Li Pu, it's already outside, Gaoyou Mansion. Something big has happened!"

Is there an accident in Gaoyou Mansion? Everyone has not been stunned by alcohol. Once something happens to Gaoyou Mansion, Yangzhou will be encircled.

"What's going on?" Zhe Duan asked. " Let Li Pu come up!"

Before the guards went out, Li Pu had stumbled up. At this time, he had long lost the look of the past. His gray face, only two eyes were still moving, and his clothes on his body were tattered. He put them outside, similar to a beggle, not like a court order officer!

Next to Li Pu, there was a decent young man. Although his clothes were also dusty, he was still so calm. This man, whom everyone knew, was He Zhaojie, the second son of the He family.

"Li Pu, what's going on?"

"Your excellency, the villain is incompetent. It's worthy of your trust!" Li Pu suddenly knelt on the ground and cried loudly.

"I didn't hear you cry. Tell me quickly. What's going on? Just like a man!" Yan Zhe is on fire.

Li Pu stopped crying and said slowly, "Your Excellency, half a year ago, the villain and the timid general followed the order of the province. They went to Gaoyou Mansion together and took over the Gaoyou Mansion. Unexpectedly, unexpectedly..." With that, Li Pu beat his thigh with his hand and began to suppress his emotions again.

"Lord Li, don't be sad. What's going on?" Zhao Lian walked over and picked up a cup of tea: "Come on, drink some water first to suppress the shock."

Li Pu didn't take over the tea. If it hadn't been Zhao Lian, how would he have fallen to such a point? In fact, everything just now was pretended. Anyway, the province sent himself and timid to go to the Gaoyou Mansion. Instead of completing the task, he was imprisoned by others. It was easy to escape, but he was finished. If you are timid, you are a Mongolian! It's like two children going to play in the river. One child drowned. After returning home, the adult will definitely be angry with the other child. Therefore, he pretended to be pitiful in advance and may be able to muddle through.

"Your Excellency, when he went to Gaoyou Mansion, Zhang Shicheng's face and beastly heart first seemed to be very enthusiastic. He cheated me and General Xiaobuhua into the government office of Gaoyou Mansion and let us relax our vigilance. Then, he suddenly got into trouble and detained me and General Xiaobuhua, as well as 5,000 soldiers. All those who resisted were killed immediately. Even the timid general was beaten with fire and his leg was broken!"

"Presumptuous, this Zhang Shicheng is too much!" Da Shi threw the glass angrily and said, "Your Excellency, please send me to lead 50,000 elite soldiers to encircle and suppress Zhang Shicheng!"

Xi Zhedu did not agree, but then asked, "What happened later? How did you get out?

"We have been locked in the government office for half a year. There are any official documents, and sometimes I need to write them. In this way, when we are slowly familiar with each other, their surveillance on us is getting looser and looser. Later, with the help of Mr. He, Zhang Shicheng's arsenal was burned, and we escaped in the chaos." Li Pu said.

"What about timidity?" Zhe asked. .

"We were going to escape together, but General timidly wanted to save 5,000 soldiers and take advantage of the situation to seize the Gaoyou Mansion. Unexpectedly, Zhang Shicheng saw through the plan. Five thousand soldiers and the timid general have been ascended to heaven! If I hadn't walked fast, I'm afraid I wouldn't have the last name to come back to see my lord!" With that, Li Pu cried again.

"Forget it, you go down first, Mr. He, you stay." Zhe Du said. .

(to be continued)