Twenty-one thieves were separated from the crowd and then tied up. At this time, they already felt that something was wrong. When they saw the cold eyes of the young man, they began to panic and realized what was about to happen.
"Didn't you say that if you surrender, you won't be beheaded?" someone cried and struggled.
"First, I never told you this, and second, in my eyes, any thief will be killed!"
When twenty heads fell to the ground, Chang Yu had already walked out of the county office and headed straight for his subordinates' camp at the south gate.
Three hundred of his men participated in the battle and helped Zhou Yuji kill the bandit army. They easily won the victory. However, when charging into the battle, they fought with their lives. How could there be no casualties.
There were injuries, but there were really no deaths. This was mainly because when Duan Wuhu led the team, Zhou Yuji's men were already fighting head-on, and they were crushing them. To put it bluntly, Chang Yu's men only cheered,
I got a big deal from behind and didn't participate in many fierce battles. It was more about accumulating experience.
"More than 40 people were injured, no one was seriously injured, and no one died," Duan Wuhu reported.
Chang Yu could still accept this number, comfort the wounded soldiers one by one, check their injuries, and promise heavy rewards, so that the morale did not drop at all, but became even higher.
After a lot of trouble, Chang Yu prepared to go up to the city to take a look around. He felt that there must be a head-on encounter this afternoon, and there must be a vanguard from the rebel army looking for a fight.
As soon as he arrived at the city, he saw Zhou Yuji coming.
"Done?" Chang Yu asked
Zhou Yuji nodded and smiled slightly: "Master Cai is good at that. Now he is working with Xiong Tong and others to collude with the captured soldiers to make the play more realistic."
Chang Yu nodded slightly and then said: "Your subordinates should be careful with their words and don't reveal the secret. Otherwise, it will be counterproductive and we will be embarrassed."
Zhou Yuji laughed and then said seriously: "Don't worry, only my subordinates know about this matter and have already warned them. The rest of them don't know what happened today."
"This is best." Chang Yu said and walked towards the city with Zhou Yuji: "If my estimate is right, there will be a battle in the afternoon."
"But I don't think it's possible," Zhou Yuji shook his head lightly, "I'm afraid the bandit army will invade the territory early tomorrow morning."
"But we have prepared a bucket of ice water, so Blind Li will not come tomorrow morning!" The two looked at each other and laughed.
The two of them were chatting and laughing in the city. Although they knew that a storm was coming, their expressions were as calm as a breeze. This was a kind of aura and heroic spirit.
It was more than half past noon in the afternoon, and there was no movement in the south of the city. The scouts who had been sent out were running back and forth, but the information they received was not what he expected: there was no sign of the enemy, and only the spies began to move again.
"It seems like we can't fight today," Zhou Yuji said, looking at Chang Yu with a solemn expression.
Chang Yu nodded slightly. It seemed that Li Zicheng was much less magnanimous than he thought. If this guy didn't regain his position immediately, it meant that he was furious and decided to mobilize his troops to play the bigger game.
There's a fire, it's time to put the fire extinguisher on.
"Thief Zhou is extremely hateful!"
This was what Li Zicheng said the most through gritted teeth throughout the afternoon.
Although he had long been mentally prepared that Zhou Yuji's so-called surrender was a delaying tactic, he was still looking forward to it so much that he sent his confidant Niu Jinxing to negotiate in person, which shows how much he values Zhou Yuji.
In fact, Li Zicheng was born as a grass bandit. No matter how big an official he is given or how big a hat he wears, the Caotou King is still the Caotou King. If he cannot be recognized by the orthodox, he is a piece of shit. Therefore, I am particularly eager to be recognized by the orthodox, or to win over those on the orthodox path.
Of course, on the surface, people who are thirsty for talents and buy horse bones for thousands of dollars are the most famous ones. Chen Yongfu is the most famous one.
Chen Yongfu was the deputy commander-in-chief of Kaifeng. When Li Zicheng attacked Kaifeng, he was the one who blinded his eyes. However, in order to recruit Chen Yongfu to surrender, he ignored his past grudges and even made him Wen Shuibo. This is evident from this.
Zhou Yuji's qualifications and reputation are higher than Chen Yongfu's. If he can be recruited to surrender, it will definitely be a fatal blow to the Ming court's military morale. It will attract the surrender of more Ming generals in the future, so Li Zicheng's expectation for this surrender is
Unprecedentedly high.
But!
Not only did he plan to ambush Xiong Tong and Chen Shangzhi, but he also almost captured Prime Minister Lao Niu alive. If Lao Niu hadn't been clever, the consequences would have been disastrous.
What's more serious is that he feels that his feelings have been deceived. You can insult me and kill me, but how can you deceive your feelings?
As a result, Blind Li's anger was countless times greater than Chang Yu expected. If you deceive my feelings, I will kill you. So he forcibly held down several of his irritable subordinates who wanted to find trouble immediately, and ordered the military affairs to be rectified immediately.
After resting for a long time, he would send troops immediately tomorrow morning, defeat the Jiaocheng defense line in one fell swoop, and attack Taiyuan City directly. He wanted to severely humiliate Zhou Yuji.
However, just when Li Zicheng convened his subordinates Wen Wu in the hall to discuss how to attack tomorrow, a soldier suddenly reported: "The Ming army sent someone to deliver a letter saying that they would discuss surrender."
Damn it! The hall suddenly became violent. A bunch of grass-headed kings shouted and scolded Zhou Yuji for being shameless. Who would do the same thing a second time? Do you think everyone here is a fool?
Li Zicheng laughed angrily and ordered someone to chop him down.
"Wait a minute" Niu Jinxing, who had narrowly escaped death and finally escaped, stood up and stopped himself: "My lord, let's wait and see, so that we can see how shameless Zhou Thief is!"
Li Zicheng was fascinated by the one-eyed dragon and stared at Niu Jinxing again and again, feeling a little restless just staring at this guy.
"Forget it! Let's see and see." Naturally, Li Zicheng knew Niu Jinxing's intention to obstruct him. His son was captured and fell into the hands of the army. His heart was on fire, and he could not keep the news of his eldest son in the letter from the Ming army.
Soon a letter was delivered to the front of the hall, and Niu Jinxing hurried to pick it up. Although there were many lieutenant generals in the rebel army, not many were literate. Niu Jinxing and several other staff were responsible for such correspondence.
However, when he saw a few big words on the envelope, his expression suddenly changed and he looked stunned, feeling like he had seen a ghost!
"This, this is not a letter from Thief Zhou"
Damn it, I knew this thief was up to something again, and the hall suddenly became noisy again. Li Zicheng's face and muscles kept shaking, which showed that he was also angry inside.
"This is actually a letter written by Cai Gongyu!" Niu Jinxing shouted, and the noise in the hall disappeared. All the grassroots looked confused and frowned. Who is Cai Gongyu?
"Cai Gongyu" Li Yan, Gu Junen and Song Xiance couldn't sit still for a while, they all stood up and exclaimed!
The reactions of these people immediately made everyone feel that things were not simple. Even Li Zicheng was shocked. He slowly stood up and looked at Niu Jinxing with trembling hands: "Prime Minister, this, this, this Cai Gongyu is
…”
"Yes." Niu Jinxing was also a little excited: "It's Cai Maode, the censor of Youqiandu in the Ming Dynasty and the governor of Shanxi!"
Wow! It’s unbelievable!
Li Zicheng suddenly felt like the world was spinning. He took the envelope from Niu Jinxing's hand, opened it and read at a glance. He used to be a postman delivering official documents to the imperial court, and he was literate.
With a glance and ten lines, Li Zicheng suddenly burst into laughter, stretched out his hands, and said: "Cai Maode actually wants to surrender to me."
Everyone was surprised, happy and suspicious. Li Yan was quick and reached out to catch the letter. Niu Jinxing and others immediately gathered around.
Cai Maode actually wrote a handwritten letter to Li Zicheng, saying that he was willing to surrender in exchange for Taiyuan City and that the King of Jin would be safe. His words revealed that he was actually setting up a line for the King of Jin. He also said that he had persuaded Zhou Yuji and apologized for the previous incident.
In order to express his sincere wishes, the son of Niu Jinxing sent him back...
There are nearly a thousand words written eloquently, and every word is sincere.
"Cai Maode is famous all over the world. He is the leader of Shanxi literati and has always been a man of character. Now he writes a letter of surrender. Doesn't my father think it's suspicious?" Everyone in the hall didn't believe it. Li Guo was the first to question.
"It's very suspicious! But even if he is pretending to surrender and is really delaying, my father is willing to wait and be fooled by him once." Li Zicheng's expression was solemn, but he was still excited.
Liu Zongmin, Li Guo and others were puzzled, but Niu Jinxing, Li Yan, Song Xiance and other staff nodded in agreement.