The night after Shen Shuren came to Lin for training and Liu Sandao had a secret discussion.
Outside the west gate of Hengzhou City, several scouts and cavalry quietly walked to the city, and then used the communication code commonly used by bandits to request entry into the city.
"Let us enter the city quickly! My king has confidential matters to contact the eight kings!"
The defenders at the head of the city were hesitant at first and wanted to put the hanging basket down, but later they saw that there were at least four or five people on the other side. They were afraid of having long nights and dreams if they used the hanging basket. In addition, Hengzhou is also considered a relatively large city in the south of Huguang, and there is an inner urn inside the city gate.
Don't be afraid of sudden attacks after deceiving the door.
So the guard on the city tower asked several soldiers holding giant axes to stand guard near the winch of the Qianjin Gate, then opened the outer door, let people in first, closed the outer door, and then opened the inner door.
The person who came was none other than Liu Sandao, but the identity he claimed this time was that he was Lin Chengcheng's adopted son, not Liu Xiyao's adopted son. He temporarily used a pseudonym, Lin Daorong.
Anyway, none of Zhang Xianzhong's men had ever seen a minor character like him. Lin Chengcheng, Liu Xiyao and the two armies were already very familiar with each other, so he had a high success rate in pretending to be Liu Xiyao's men.
At the same time, Shen Shuren felt more at ease in letting Liu Sandao do the deception because he had a record of murdering his father and deserting the dark side to turn to the bright side. He was a person who was unlikely to return to the bandit side. Letting him take this risk could be regarded as a gain in wealth and wealth.
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…
Soon, the news that Lin Chengcheng sent a secret envoy to collude reached Zhang Xianzhong's ears.
Zhang Xianzhong has been able to personally participate in the war these days, but he rarely goes to the city wall to inspect and supervise battles. Because he was pockmarked by lead bullet fragments and had an ear cut off, less than ten days ago, and he still needs to recover from his injuries.
Hearing that other former bandit factions were coming, he was afraid that he would lose his prestige and meet him in person. So he nervously asked the bodyguard who came in to report: "Lin Chengcheng sent someone here? Why? When was he captured?"
Sent by Chen Shuren to the front line?"
The personal guard didn't quite understand either: "I don't know, but the person who came here refused to elaborate. It seems that he wants to reach some kind of tacit agreement with the king to avoid killing each other."
Zhang Xianzhong thought for a while and gritted his teeth: "Let the second brother be in charge of seeing the guests! Bai Wenxuan will watch from the side. He will help me go to the back of the hall to listen to the screen, and tell the public that I have fallen asleep and am too lazy to see the person Lin has raised."
Zhang Xianzhong's original status in the bandit world was indeed much higher than that of Lin Chengcheng, so there was nothing wrong with him putting on this air. In this way, he could avoid leaking negative news about his injury.
If there is a fraud, it will not be known to the officers and soldiers, which boosts the morale of the officers and soldiers.
The guards hurriedly went down to make arrangements, and only then did Li Dingguo, who had been treated coldly for several months, get another opportunity to handle "foreign affairs work."
Conflicts between adopted father and adopted son are all family scandals. We should pretend to be more harmonious to the outside world, and we should not expose family scandals to others.
After Li Dingguo received the order, he was also very grateful. He thought that his adoptive father was willing to reuse him again, so he decided to perform well.
After a while, Liu Sandao was led to the main hall of Prince Gui's Mansion. Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan sat on the side of the main seat, with a majestic demeanor. When Liu Sandao met, he quickly bowed humbly: "The last general, Lin Daorong, and his adoptive father will fight for the king of the world."
'Secret message, submitted to the eight kings."
As he spoke, he naturally introduced himself to his family with the bandit number that Lin had cultivated in those days. He looked very proficient, and his tone and demeanor revealed that he was an old thief.
Bai Wenxuan stood up and took it and handed it to Li Dingguo. Li Dingguo opened it and took a rough look and asked: "General Lin said: Both the official army and the rear army and General Wang Shangli were injured? But General Wang Shangli successfully burned the official army in the Hengshan Guard in a bloody battle."
Food, grass and ammunition?”
Liu Sandao immediately repeated the rehearsed speech, and finally emphasized: "...It is true that Chen Shuren attacked very urgently before, but in fact he used his troops regardless of the duration and used up his ammunition too quickly. Although his troops, horses and firearms
The weapons and ammunition are all specially made and must be transported thousands of miles from Wuchang.
This time they were burned by General Wang. Although the loss of troops on both sides is still unclear, they will not be able to get new ammunition supplies for at least five or six days. Shen Shuren was afraid that the Eighth King would seize this opportunity to break out because he did not have enough ammunition.
The troops are temporarily unable to pursue, and even if they pursue, they are afraid that they will not be able to defeat them.
So he doesn't care about the life and death of me and other surrendered troops. In the past few days, he wants us to temporarily block the opening in the west of the city that was originally surrounded by three and one missing, and let us risk our lives to block the escape route of the west gate.
The foster father doesn't want his brothers to fight to the death with the Eight Kings' troops, so he just wants to let you know first that those who are in Ximen these days are all from Shaanxi, so don't make it difficult for us to break through from Ximen."
Li Dingguo's heart moved, and he asked tentatively: "General Lin is not enjoying his life at Chen Shuren's place?"
Liu Sandao didn't dare to overact, and everything was according to Shen Shuren's instructions. He only emphasized that "there is no promotion, the judgment of meritorious service is very harsh, and the salary is not high."
He also emphasized one point vividly: Lin Chengcheng had previously been a thief and robbed a lot of gold and silver. Later, in order to obtain supplies last winter, he did business with many wealthy gentry in Jiujiang Prefecture who were colluding with bandits.
As a result, after the surrender, Shen Shuren's subordinates often used the derivatives of the original transactions to make trouble. At one time or another, they asked Lin to extract money from him, asking him to spit out part of the money left over from the robbery to eliminate the disaster.
However, Liu Sandao refused to mention the fact that "Lin Chengcheng's troops have been dispersed and reorganized". At most, he just said in passing, "Shen Shuren has something to do with us."
The army is mixed with sand to infiltrate and arrange officers."
In this way, Lin's lack of ambition can be brought to life without arousing suspicion.
Fortunately, Li Dingguo was still cautious. After listening, he suddenly added a question: "Since General Lin is so frustrated and now has the opportunity to be separated to take charge of his own affairs, why not take the opportunity to abandon the dark side and go to the city to accept the adaptation of the Eight Kings?"
Of course, Li Dingguo's question was nonsense. It was purely to test the other party's reaction.
Behind the screen, Zhang Xianzhong, whose face was as pockmarked as Mu Nayin, was furious when he heard this and almost made a scene: If Lin Chengcheng agreed, it was entirely possible that he was sent by the army to pretend to surrender! Let him enter the city, Heng said.
Wouldn’t the state city be lost?
Fortunately, Liu Sandao did not agree on behalf of Lin Chengcheng, but said euphemistically: "There is no need to enter the city... We are all friendly forces, and we will continue to be friendly forces if we have the opportunity in the future."
Li Dingguo didn't want to give the other party a chance to think, so he immediately asked: "Then why is General Lin unwilling to let our army leave? For example, if the Eight Kings plan to break out of the encirclement during the past few days when the army is short of ammunition and dare not pursue.
General Lin can just sit back and watch our army pass by your army's camp, just making noises and not attacking, then wouldn't both sides suffer losses?"
Liu Sandao was slightly shocked, and had to admit that Li Dingguo responded quickly, but fortunately, Shen Futai had rehearsed a perfect answer for him before he came.
He quickly said without thinking: "My adoptive father is now a general of the imperial court in name. Isn't it a crime to indulge in thieves without permission? If you don't have the capital to set up a new mountain, how will you protect yourself in the future?"
The adoptive father asked me to come this time because he actually has a plan that we can discuss with your army - others may not know how much gold, silver and jewels the eight kings plundered in Changde, Changsha and Hengzhou, but we are all on the same journey.
The adoptive father has already passed away,
After the Eight Kings entered Hunan, they probably only spent the wealth of Prince Rong's Palace to expand their troops and reward them. I'm afraid most of the remaining wealth of Prince Ji's Palace and Prince Gui's Palace, as well as the proceeds from the massacre and looting in Changsha, were left behind.
?
After all, refugees are worthless. They can be found everywhere and are difficult to carry with them to fight, but money is much easier to carry. It is better to use the refugees wherever they go, and then there is still time to disperse wealth and recruit soldiers.
If my adoptive father really offended the government because he did not want to fight with the Eight Kings, he would have to find a way out, right? The wealth that my adoptive father plundered in Anlu has now been destroyed by the cannibals under Shen Gouguan.
The bones are almost squeezed out. Thinking about things again, there is no money to expand the army, buy food and make ordnance.
So before I came, my adoptive father said that if the Eight Kings really want to take advantage of these few days to break out of his defense zone and force him not to fight to the death with you, it is not impossible. All he needs to do is take 30% of the money from Prince Ji's Palace and Prince Gui's Palace.
Money, he will let you go immediately, and he can even protect you.
After he took this huge sum of money, he didn't have to worry about being accused by Chen Shuren. Our army immediately set off south to Wuling at the junction of Guangdong and Guangxi to regain the mountain and become the king. With this huge sum of money, we can re-expand the army several times.
No problem. When the armed forces in Guangdong and Guangxi are relaxed, why don't you just let me come and go? In this Ming Dynasty, except Chen Shuren, the governors of other places have nothing to fear, and he can't pursue them when they get to Guangdong and Guangxi.
If the Eight Kings can be more generous and directly give half of the money from Prince Gui's Palace and Prince Ji's Palace, then my adoptive father can just switch sides in front of the battle and help you kill the Chenshu people."
Liu Sandao proposed these conditions on behalf of Lin Chengcheng, and Zhang Xianzhong immediately believed it by several percent.
In particular, people had exposed a shortcoming of Shen Jiajun at the beginning, saying that Shenshu people were short of ammunition recently. When this is combined with what follows, the credibility is doubled.
After hearing this, Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan looked at each other. Finally, Bai Wenxuan came forward and asked: "Thirty percent is not negotiable. In fact, our army's expenditure is also very large. In fact, only 30% is left..."
Liu Sandao interrupted them: "Isn't it true that the proceeds from the massacre in Changsha amounted to more than ten million taels? As the uncle of the current emperor, King Gui's family property is at least five million taels. We will need at least five million taels for 30%.
If it's 50%, it's eight million taels. If it's less than this, it's not fair."
This number was also taught to him by Chen Shuren in advance, and it seemed to be the appetite of the old thieves.
Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan were slightly shocked, because Zhang Xianzhong really gained so much by slaughtering the city and killing several royal palaces.
But what is Lin Chengcheng? Five million taels to buy a road, this is too high of oneself.
However, this matter was not something that Li Dingguo could make a decision on, so he said that he would leave Liu Sandao to serve tea and go down to have a rest and have some midnight snacks while he went to ask his adoptive father for instructions.
After a while, Liu Sandao finished eating and drinking, and Li Dingguo also asked Zhang Xianzhong for instructions, and came over to show off his cards with a friendly face: "General Lin Gaoyi, although the price is a bit high, it is not impossible to negotiate.
Let's do this. My father said, three million taels will be delivered in front of the battle the day after tomorrow. Your army will quietly let our army leave, and it will be delayed at least until midnight without being known by the Chenshu people, so as to prevent other departments of the army from chasing us immediately.
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As for tonight, there are only so many of you here, and you can’t carry much worth of millions of taels of property. I’ll give you three thousand taels of gold first, plus two sacks of dongzhu, jade, and precious stones. The total can be
It's worth more than 20,000 taels of gold. You should pay 300,000 taels of silver first, 10% of the total price, as a deposit. Once you have it, go back and resume your life as soon as possible."
After that, Li Dingguo took out the property he had just been ordered to prepare, including top-grade jewelry and gold worth 300,000 taels of silver, weighing more than 400 kilograms in total, and asked Liu Sandao and other five riders to take them away on horseback (one kilogram)
Sixteen taels, so three thousand taels of gold is only about two hundred kilograms)
Gold has a high density. A bag of 1,500 taels of gold is only the size of a solid basketball and can be easily taken away.
After Liu Sandao and others left with the deposit, Bai Wenxuan met with Zhang Xianzhong and asked him about his true plan.
Zhang Xianzhong didn't even think about it: "Lin Chengcheng deserves it! I just wanted to break out of the siege. I could break out of the siege a few days ago. There was no military camp in the west of the city at that time! Why did I pay millions more taels of silver in vain for being a few days late!"
Gu Bu breaks out, but he feels that with his 70,000 to 80,000 troops, only 20,000 to 30,000 people can keep up with him if he really breaks through. If the rest are besieged, Shen Shuren will be advantaged in vain! So he wants to fight until both sides suffer, seriously weakening Shen Shuren.
After planting people, retreat!
These new auxiliary troops don’t have the endurance to run to Qianzhong Road and enter Sichuan. They might as well be used up under Hengzhou City! Since the Chenshu people are short of ammunition, they will concentrate their forces to leave the city tomorrow and attack the official camp on the north side of the city.
! Giving Lin a small amount of 300,000 taels to raise him is just to paralyze him!"
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ps: Two updates will resume as normal starting today, and there will be a second update before 5 p.m.