The alley was not big to begin with, but rather deep. The tall trees blocked the sunlight, leaving the alley shrouded in a dark shadow.
As soon as he entered the alley, Zhang Yanling saw something strange. In front of a courtyard door, two burly soldiers were leaning against the door chatting in a low voice. Zhang Yanling walked slowly past. He was wearing a broken straw hat and was covered with a curtain torn from the temple.
, he is dressed like a beggar.
The two soldiers stopped talking and looked at Zhang Yanling with frowns.
"What are you doing?" shouted a soldier.
"May I ask Master Jun, is there any heavy work to be done at home? Can you please help?" Zhang Yanling pretended to be a day laborer and bowed to ask.
"Guangguanggu, where can I find any work? Look elsewhere. You are not allowed to stay here. Let's go quickly." Another soldier shouted.
"Oh, let's go now, let's go now." Zhang Yanling hunched over and left quickly. Just then he took a glance and saw the words "Qiu Mansion" written on the plaque at the door. This was enough.
It seemed that Qiu Yue was indeed under house arrest. There were soldiers standing at the door, and there must be some inside the house as well. But this made Zhang Yanling feel relieved.
Since Qiu Yue is under house arrest, it shows that he is reliable. It must be that King Anhua and others did not trust Qiu Yue, so they did this. Then what Shi Yong said that Qiu Yue faked his surrender is true.
It was impossible to get in from the front, so she had to find another way. Zhang Yanling went around to the backyard of Qiu Mansion. The fence was not high. He brought a dead tree that had fallen to the ground and leaned against the fence. Zhang Yanling entered without any effort.
Into the enemy's back garden.
There was no one in the garden, except for a stooped gardener watering the flower bed in the distance. It seemed that Qiu Yue's home was not as heavily guarded as he thought.
This is actually normal. After all, Qiu Yue expressed his surrender and was just staying home because of his illness. King Anhua and the others were worried about Qiu Yue, so they arranged some people to watch him. If they really knew that Qiu Yue was pretending to surrender, they would probably
I would have killed him long ago.
Under the current circumstances, it is enough to just send some people to watch, and there is no need to mobilize troops. At this time, Qiu Yue has no soldiers and no soldiers, and there is no threat. Besides, his whole family is in the city, where can he escape to?
?
Zhang Yanling didn't know where Qiu Yue lived. When he saw a relatively large courtyard in the back house, he simply went in and took a look. He looked around at the door of the courtyard for a while and found nothing strange. However, when Zhang Yanling climbed over the wall and came in, he was shocked to find that there was a distance between him and him.
Only a few feet away, under the shade of a tree, a middle-aged woman was sitting on a chair, staring blankly at herself.
The woman was holding a bamboo basket in her hand, with some clothes inside, and the needle and thread in her hand were fluttering in the wind. No wonder she couldn't hear the sound. It turned out that she was sitting here mending clothes.
Seeing a stranger climbing over the wall wearing all his rags, the woman was shocked at first, and then she screamed.
Zhang Yanling hurriedly waved her hands and said softly: "Don't shout. May I ask where Master Qiu is?"
"Who are you? Master, master! Come quickly." The woman shouted.
Zhang Yanling was at a loss when a figure rushed out from the room in front, holding a long knife in his hand and striding towards him, cursing: "Madam, don't be afraid, you sons of bitches are bullying people too much, they even dare to break into the back house."
.If I fight with you, the worst we can do is perish together."
Zhang Yanling looked at his appearance. He had a beard on his face, he looked about forty, and he had a majestic figure. He immediately knew that he was Qiu Yue. Just as he was about to explain, he heard a commotion outside the hospital, and the thumping of footsteps.
Many people rushed over.
Zhang Yanling knew that he must have alerted others. He then whispered to Qiu Yue: "General Qiu, Shi Yong asked me to come."
Qiu Yue stared in shock, and Zhang Yanling had no time to explain, so she ducked into the nearby bushes to hide.
The courtyard door opened, and three or four soldiers rushed in, looking around and shouting: "What happened? Master Qiu, who are you talking to?"
Qiu Yue rolled his eyes and suddenly pointed at the woman and cursed: "You woman, if you cry and make noise again, I will chop you up with a knife. You have been annoying me all day long. When I am sick, you will babble when I ask you to serve tea."
You looked at me and saw that I was unlucky, so you changed your face, right? I'll kill you."
The woman was frightened and at a loss. She stood there not knowing what to say. Only then did the soldiers understand what had happened. It turned out that Qiu Yue wanted to chop his wife with a knife. It was not necessarily because her wife was neglecting him.
Maybe he was under house arrest and was just having an unnamed evil rage.
"Lord Qiu, please don't do this. Don't dare to take action. Brothers, stop him quickly." A leader said hurriedly.
Several soldiers stepped forward to stop Qiu Yue. Qiu Yue struggled for a few times and cursed endlessly. The soldiers took the knife from his hand and listened to his constant swearing. It seemed that he was criticizing Huai, but they found it boring. So they persuaded him.
He left after a few words, not bothering to mind his business and just listened to him curse.
While Qiu Yue was yelling and scolding, he motioned to the woman to go to the courtyard gate and wait and see. The woman also understood at this moment that her husband was not targeting her, but was trying to cover up.
The woman looked at the door for a while, making sure that the group of people were far away, and then signaled to Qiu Yue. Qiu Yue felt relieved, looked at the bushes and whispered: "Come out, they are gone."
Only then did Zhang Yanling emerge from the bushes. Qiu Yue looked up and down at Zhang Yanling, his eyes showing suspicion.
"Who are you? Do you know Mr. Shi Yongshi? Did he ask you to come?"
Zhang Yanling nodded slowly and said softly: "Exactly."
Qiu Yue nodded, made a gesture, turned and walked into the house. Zhang Yanling quickly followed. Qiu Yue came to the corridor, whispered to his wife to sit on the porch at the door and look out, and then led Zhang Yanling into the house.
The two stood still in the room. Qiu Yue turned around and asked, "Where are you from?"
Zhang Yanling said: "General Qiu, I come from Lingzhou."
"You said Shi Yong asked you to come to me? So, tell me, how tall is Shi Yong and what does he look like? How could he ask you to come to me? How did you cross the river and get into the city?
Why did you come to me?" Qiu Yue asked in a deep voice like a barrage of questions.
Zhang Yanling smiled and said: "General Qiu, it seems that you are very cautious. This is good. Originally, I was worried that you had defected to Zhu Chixiu. Now it seems that I was overly worried. Mr. Shi's words should be credible. You are indeed
You're pretending to surrender. It seems I found you in the right place."
Qiu Yue was shocked. Zhang Yanling did not answer any of his questions, but just pointed out that he was pretending to surrender, which explained everything. The reason why he pretended to surrender was precisely the result of Shi Yong's persuasion.
"Brother, are you really sent by Brother Shi?" Qiu Yue shouted.
Zhang Yanling shook his head and smiled: "No, I came to you on my own. In fact, Mr. Shi didn't know that I was coming to see you. I didn't tell him either."
Qiu Yue was shocked when he heard this and said in horror: "What do you mean by this? Didn't you just say that Shi Yong sent you here?"
Zhang Yanling said in a deep voice: "General Qiu, Shi Yong can't appoint me. I heard from Shi Yong that there are letters between you. I don't know if he has mentioned me to you in the past few days. I am Zhang Yanling, Marquis of Jianchang.
The Admiral of the Zhenwei Camp in the Beijing Camp ordered the Commander-in-Chief of the Northwest Counter-Rebellion. You said, if I want to come to you, do I still need Shi Yong’s appointment?”
Qiu Yue was shocked and stared at Zhang Yanling with an incredible expression on his face.
Zhang Yanling smiled and said: "By the way, I almost forgot. Shi Yong said that you never inquire about military affairs, so you may not know me and don't know that the imperial court appointed me to counter the rebellion. It is understandable."
Qiu Yue shook his head and said: "No, no, no, I know. Governor Yang Yiqing of Shaanxi is in charge of military affairs. Zhang Yanling, Marquis of Jianchang, is the chief military officer. Gu Dayong, the eunuch of the inner court, is the eunuch who supervises the army. He gathered troops and horses in Lingzhou to put down the rebellion. How can I
I don’t know? Although I am trapped at home, I know all this information. I just can’t believe that you are the Marquis of Jianchang, because how could you appear here? Is this a joke? "
Zhang Yanling laughed and narrated what happened. The doubts in Qiu Yue's heart were quickly eliminated, because the details Zhang Yanling said were irrefutable. Overjoyed, he stood up and bowed his head.
"The general has no eyes to see Mount Tai and does not know that the marquis is coming. He really deserves to die. In order to quell the rebellion, the marquis is willing to take such a strange risk and come to this dangerous place. The general admires him greatly. As the guard general of Ningxia, this time Zhu Chixiu
I was unable to stop the rebellion, and I failed to fight to the death. I feel guilty for living here now. Please punish me severely, and I will never say anything."
Zhang Yanling hurriedly helped him up and said: "General Qiu, what are you talking about? Isn't it better to be useful than to die blindly? This plan needs your help. Of course you are at fault. Zhu Chixiu is going to rebel.
, there must be signs, how can we not be on guard? But let’s not say these words anymore. Now you must take the blame and perform meritorious service, and work together with me to suppress the rebellion. In that case, not only will there be no fault, but it will also be a great achievement."
Qiu Yue said in a deep voice: "I will obey your orders. Lord Marquis, please give me your orders. I will not give up even if I am humbled by my position."
Zhang Yanling nodded slightly and then had a long conversation with Qiu Yue.
I learned from Qiu Yue that there are currently 5,000 rebels stationed in Ningxia City. Together with the palace guards and some stragglers, the number exceeds 6,000. The guard general in the city is Zhou Ang, the former deputy commander of the Ningxia Guard. This person is personally
The traitor general who killed Jiang Han, Li Zeng and many generals and officials was now appointed by Zhu Chixiu as the deputy general in the fight against thieves.
Qiu Yue told Zhang Yanling that in fact, Zhu Zhixiu and the others knew that he had faked the surrender. They were just pretending to be confused to recruit him. Because he was brave in battle, he was a famous general in Ningxia. Zhu Zhixiu hoped that he could serve for him and fight against the imperial soldiers.
Ma, that’s why I didn’t kill myself.
Of course, another reason is that half of the five thousand rebels in the city are Qiu Yue's soldiers. They have several of Qiu Yue's die-hard subordinates and control many soldiers and horses. They thought Qiu Yue had defected to Zhu Zhixiu, but they just
He was sick and recuperating at home, so he could listen to his orders with peace of mind. If he were killed, these people would definitely cause trouble. This was one of the reasons why he could survive.
Zhou Ang came to see Qiu Yue many times that day, asking questions about Qiu Yue. He also pretended to sincerely ask Qiu Yue for advice on how to retreat from the enemy, hoping that Qiu Yue would come up with ideas to help solve the current crisis of the imperial army pressing down on the country. Qiu Yue
Naturally, he always excused himself and refused to give them any advice.
From Qiu Yue's mouth, Zhang Yanling also learned a lot of detailed information. This also made Zhang Yanling full of confidence in the success of this plan. At this point, Zhang Yanling no longer had to hide his big plan. He led 3,000 cavalry through the desert and
He Lanshan told Qiu Yue in detail about his coming here. He also told him that his troops would arrive to attack tomorrow night.
When Qiu Yue heard this, he couldn't believe his ears. This Zhang Houye actually sent such a surprise attack, which he never dared to think about. Before, he thought that Zhang Houye just wanted to enter the city to assassinate and destroy, and cooperated with Lingzhou
During the offensive operation, I felt that Zhang Houye's actions were too abrupt. Only now did I realize that he was simply here to draw fuel from the bottom of the cauldron, directly seizing the city and cutting off the roots of the rebels.
Qiu Yue was also a bold and careful man, and such a plan made his blood boil. The two discussed carefully for a long time and finally finalized all the details of the plan. Zhang Yanling then stood up and left.
In order to protect Zhang Yanling from leaving safely, Qiu Yue ran outside the yard and yelled and cursed, pretending to be crazy for a while, attracting the attention of seven or eight surveillance soldiers in the house. Zhang Yanling climbed over the wall in the back garden and left smoothly.