"Aren't you saying that Shen Gouguan is just a rotten scholar? He can only drop his book bag and has never fought in a war! I have been fighting for half my life, but I lost to this kind of guy. What else can I do when I meet brothers from other battalions in the future? Keep your face up and be a good person!"
After retreating to the camp, Liu Xiyao became increasingly angry and sad as he thought about it. He couldn't help but drink several bottles of wine stolen from nearby wealthy households, and scolded all his subordinates before he finally calmed down.
After calming down, he couldn't help but put his fingers in his messy hair, scratching it, and asked dejectedly: "How many brothers are left in our army?"
Next to him, a general named Liu Sandao, who was adopted by Liu Xiyao as his adopted son, replied in fear: "Father, there are still... more than 8,000 people, but those who can carry weapons to continue fighting are more than 6,000 at most, at least More than a thousand brothers were injured.
In today's battle, Shen Gouguan was really too cunning. If the officers and soldiers hadn't kept us appetizing several times, making our army mistakenly believe that they could overcome it with more force, we wouldn't have been fighting for so long. , the casualties were so tragic, alas.”
In a normal ancient war, especially if it was a rogue bandit, they would surely retreat with only one tenth of the casualties, and the generals would not be able to suppress them.
In today's battle, thousands of people were killed directly, and there were also a similar number of seriously injured people. They could not follow the retreat and could only leave it to the officers and soldiers to clean the battlefield, resulting in a total permanent loss of more than two people on the bandit side. Thousands of people.
The fact that he was able to fight for so long and so resolutely was all caused by Liu Xiyao himself. He repeatedly boosted morale, causing all the soldiers in the army to misjudge that "if you hold on a little longer, you will be rich and powerful, but if you give up now, all your efforts will be wasted and you will die in vain."
Just like a gambler who tastes the sweetness first and then slowly loses, he is gradually seduced by his opponent's subtle psychological account design to raise bets, and finally gets to this point.
Liu Xiyao's face was ashen, and the silence in the big tent was terrifying. No one dared to suggest the next battle plan, for fear of being angered in the future if they made a wrong decision, and some were worried about being jealous of the king——
When Shen Gouguan's army was retreating today, he had people yelling a lot of divisive words at the top of the city. It would not be a good thing for anyone to be too aggressive at this time.
Although Liu Xiyao did not read, he still knew a little about the ways of the world and the art of controlling his subordinates. He could also detect something strange from everyone's silence.
He knew that he could not be serious at this time, otherwise the army would have to mutiny due to consecutive defeats. After thinking for a while, Liu Xiyao said confidently:
"Well, victory or defeat is a common thing for military officers. Today's defeat is mainly my fault. You don't have to worry. I have also figured it out. Now that there are only more than 6,000 troops left, it is absolutely impossible to attack the city again.
Now we have only two options left, either withdraw our troops in despair, or force the enemy to leave the city and fight in the field! I am not a merciless person, and I will not let my sons die in vain! Therefore, in the past few days, I have tried to find ways to force the enemy out of the city. If you can't do it in the field, withdraw your troops!"
"Father/The King is wise!" All the generals breathed a sigh of relief, secretly thinking that although the King had made mistakes, he was still somewhat responsible at the last moment.
This level is at least better than those Yuan Shao-type leaders who care about face and kill their own people to blame others.
"Your Majesty, how are we going to force Officer Shen Gou to go out to fight in the field? His troops are at most half our army. It is unlikely that he will not defend the city, right?" A general reminded cautiously, obviously more inclined to grab a handful. Then I retreated, not even wanting to try.
Liu Xiyao felt quite sad in his heart. He realized that after he expressed his position like this, his subordinates would definitely not work together to find a way to make things right. This solution can only be thought of by himself.
After chatting with his subordinates for a long time and talking about the experiences of other thieves in the past, Liu Xiyao finally managed to hold back a move:
"Why don't we plunder grains on one side and be prepared to retreat after looting. On the other hand, we should go deep into the counties in southern Huangzhou, bypassing Jiancheng, and specifically look for people to inquire about local officials and families.
Capture and kill those who are high-ranking officials in the court and their family members in Huangzhou, even if they are slightly related to each other! At least they threaten to kill! Use them as hostages to force Chen Shuren to fight! If he If you really don’t want to do this, forget it.”
As soon as Liu Xiyao finished speaking, several generals looked at each other in confusion and had not yet reacted. Only his adopted son Liu Sandao thought it was feasible and quickly flattered him:
"Wonderful! My father's move won the hearts of the eight kings! When the eight kings attacked Hefei, Fengyang could not be defeated. They wanted Chongzhen to kill the governor of Anlu and the governor of Fengyang. Didn't they just rely on poaching Chongzhen's old man from Fengyang? Ancestor’s grave!
Later, the eight kings tried repeatedly and failed. Every time they wanted to kill the local defenders but could not attack the city, they tried to kill the family members of the surrounding important ministers who were too late to take refuge in the city.
In this way, the court of Dog Emperor Gou Guan, who does not know right from wrong, will definitely be angry at the local officials for their inability to protect the families of important officials in the court and their cowardice and avoidance of war. Maybe in the future, they can borrow the help of Dog Emperor Gou Guan to behead Shen Gou Guan. condemn!"
Zhang Xianzhong was a bandit. When he forced the government and the army to fight, and when the government and the army refused to fight, he tried to kill the vassal king, dig graves, kill the local family members of the elders, and then made the local officials have to fight because of the crime. I've used it several times.
Historically, Zhang Xianzhong relied on this trick to kill Governor Fengyang, the governor of Anlu, in the eighth year of Chongzhen. In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, he used this trick to frame the vassal and kill Yang Sichang.
Liu Xiyao himself has never used these methods before, but has he never eaten pork and seen pigs running? So it is only normal for him to think of imitating Zhang Xianzhong.
Hope suddenly rose in the hearts of the generals, and they decided to take a final gamble and make two preparations. While harvesting food and preparing to escape, the generals also decided to force a final fight.
It was impossible to attack the city anyway. Morale was already so low that if we continued to attack the city, we would be courting death.
…
The bandit's plan was decided, and in the next few days, everything was implemented as planned.
Unfortunately, at the implementation stage, various difficulties always arise.
For example, Huangzhou is a remote place in the Dabie Mountains. It has no seeds of study at all, and none of the court officials, ministers, and ministers are from Huangzhou. I want to kill some important people. The hostages came to force Shen Shuren to fight in fear of crime, but the operation was not very good.
Unable to find the direct family members of the important officials in the DPRK, Liu Xiyao had to do the next best thing and find some side relatives of the important officials in the DPRK.
But in the end, after much searching, I only found some minor characters.
Three days later, Liu Sandao made a general survey of the troubles and came back to report: "Father, I have searched the three nearby counties and mobilized the poor to identify the officials' children.
In the end, they only found some side relatives of Yuan Jixian, the Huguang Bingqian minister, and the families of Zuo Liangyu's two concubines in Wuchang across the river - these two concubines may not be the most favored around Zuo Liangyu, just because Zuo Liangyu Liangyu was newly adopted after he moved to Wuchang, so his family members are here.
The other hostages found are even more worthless, and most of them are the concubines and family members of officials at the governor or minister level. The situation is the same as that of Zuo Liangyu’s family, where no important people can be found.”
The first wives of high-ranking officials are all married into large families and rarely appear in remote areas. Concubines are not particular, and they can be found anywhere.
Liu Xiyao was also helpless: "Forget it, tie up all these families, and send them to the west gate of Qizhou County early tomorrow morning, and let a few loud people shout to the city. If Official Shen Gou refuses to come out of the city to fight, we will chop these people up in public. Already.
Speak out and say that these people died because of Shen Gou Guan! Make Yuan Jixian and Zuo Liangyu hate Shen Gou Guan to death! Impeach him in front of the Dog Emperor to avoid war! He cannot protect the place!"
After Liu Sandao listened to the order, Wei Wei was still a little worried and reminded:
"Father, Yuan Jixian is a toothless tiger now, so there is no need to worry about him hating us. Zuo Liangyu is a ruthless person. I heard people say that he is avoiding war now just because he wants to threaten the imperial court and force the imperial court to reuse him. benefactor.
If we wipe out the entire family of his two concubines this time, he will become a dog official and hate us even more, right? What if he really provokes the King of Hell to fight hard and cross the river to suppress us?"
When Liu Xiyao heard this, he really felt a chill on the back of his neck. Indeed, Shen Gouguan was just a civil servant and he could afford to offend him. Zuo Liangyu was not easy to offend. His arrogance was beyond the control of the emperor. It was already obvious There is a tendency for the bandits to respect themselves and become warlords.
In such an apocalyptic world, the emperor is easy to offend, but the warlords cannot afford to offend.
"Then we will only tie Zuo Liangyu's concubine's clan members to the city gate to scare Official Shen Gou! If Official Shen Gou agrees to our battle, we will let him go. If he doesn't agree...then we will only Kill all of Yuan Jixian's side tribesmen, but leave Zuo Liangyu's!"
If you only kill the families of civilian officials and not the families of warlords, then you won't create hatred.
The dog civil servant is useless, no matter how many offences he offends, he is not afraid of retaliation, no matter how much he offends!
…
The next day was the third day of October, and five full days had passed since the siege of Qizhou that day.
Chen Shuren was in the city and saw that Liu Xiyao had been standing still, thinking that he was just continuing to build heavy siege equipment, treating wounded soldiers, and accumulating strength for big moves.
On this day, I finally saw Liu Xiyao's troops coming to the city. They also pretended to prepare some siege weapons, then tied up a group of people and came out, kneeling one by one under the city wall two hundred steps away.
Afterwards, Liu Xiyao's scolding soldiers began to shout: "Listen to the dog officers in the city! These are the family members of Yuan Jixian and Yuan Daotai who were captured from Huangmei County! These are the family members of Mrs. Zuo Liangyu who was captured from Qishui County!
Shen Shuren! If you have the guts, go out of the city and fight to the death with my king! If you don’t have the guts, these people were all killed by you! Then you will make Yuan Daotai and Zuo Liangyu hate you to the bone! Let Yao Shilang Cheng Shangshu stand in front of the Dog Emperor Impeach you! You don’t need me to kill you when the time comes, the Dog Emperor will kill you on his own!"
The moment Liu Xiyao appeared, the city was already facing a formidable enemy. Zuo Zixiong personally led the troops to supervise the battle on the city tower. Several other officers who had performed well recently, including Zhang Huangyan, were also present.
After hearing such shameless words, Zuo Zixiong was also furious: "Despicable! How shameless! Liu Xiyao, you can't use such despicable methods!"
It was a pity that Zuo Zixiong had no decision-making power, so he could only hurriedly ask people to invite Shen Shuren.
About half a quarter of an hour later, Shen Shucai rushed to the gate tower from the county government office, got a general understanding of the situation, and then asked his subordinate to hand him a paper tube loudspeaker that he had just prepared (not plugged in, just relying on the shape to gather the sound)
"Liu Xiyao, if you are a man, don't hide your head and show your tail. If you dare to shout, stand up - I am Chen Shuren. If you dare not come out to answer me, you are the one raised by the eunuch!"
Even with the blessing, Chen Shuren's voice was still not enough. The Ming army also had several scolding players to help shout with paper tube loudspeakers.
The bandit army on the opposite side started to boo, obviously they had never heard a civil servant speak so vulgarly to the bandit king.
Liu Xiyao came to challenge today, so of course he couldn't be cowardly. He also rode out of the crowd, but he didn't dare to enter the effective range of the city's muskets and crossbows. He was about two to three hundred steps away and passed a group of scolding warriors. Retell the conversation:
"Guan Shen! If you don't want to be questioned by your dog court, then go out of the city and fight with me in the wild! If you are not prepared, we can make an appointment! You killed my son, and I will settle the account with you!"
Chen Shuren laughed loudly: "This trick of yours can only be used to deal with those rotten scholars, but it is useless to me. Xiang Yu challenged Liu Bang to a duel, even putting Taigong Lu Pheasant on the pot, you can't even let Liu Bang show his face. You are nothing!
It’s none of my business whether Yuan Jixian Zuo Liangyu’s family dies or not! I’ve never dealt with them in the first place. I have a very strong backer in the court. I have Yang Ge to protect me, but I’m still afraid of their impeachment?! Give me a piece of the pie!”
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