Outside the south gate of Prince Zhou's Mansion, soldiers from the guards battalion came in and out, constantly carrying boxes of money and carts of food from the palace.
Miao Shao and the three commanders Wu Xingzhou, Lu Ying, and Tian Zhenbei sat on the ground and watched the money and grain being loaded and transported away, with smiles on their faces.
"I heard that it was so exciting at the time. Your Excellency grabbed King Zhou and scolded him harshly. King Zhou was stunned!"
Wu Xingzhou said with a smile, imitating others from time to time, as if he was present at the time.
Miao Shao glanced at it and said, "Who did you listen to?"
"It's a guerrilla under deputy general Chen Yongfu. When we were ordered to come over just now, we happened to meet him, so I pulled him over to inquire about it."
Miao Shao asked doubtfully: "Do you know that guerrilla?"
"I don't know him. I don't need to know him if I ask around."
Miao Shao rolled his eyes, and then said to the three of them: "You will split up to do things in a while. Wu Xingzhou will stay here and lead people to continue carrying money and food from the Zhou Palace. Lu Ying will lead people to the treasury in Kaifeng City and keep an eye on it. Arrange the warehousing matters and arrange the troops to guard it."
"In addition, Tian Zhenbei led people to inspect the city. Now all our brothers in the guard camp have gone out and started to collect money and food from the Zhou clan clans in the city. You go and keep an eye on them, and don't let those clan members sneak around."
"yes!"
Then Miao Shao asked again: "Your Excellency has set a rule: the prince must hand over 90% of the money and food in stock, the prince 80%, and below the prince, for each level lower than the prince, he can pay 10% less, and so on, without exception! "
"yes!"
The three of them went on errands separately, while Miao Shao entered the Zhou palace with a banner of guard soldiers. At this time, Liu Yan, Gao Mingheng, and Chen Yongfu were still in the main hall, blocking Zhou Wang Zhu Gongzhu, settling accounts together in the main hall.
"Your Excellency, you really have many ideas. You just blocked the King of Zhou himself so that he could not deliver the news to the various Zhou vassal clans. Even the inside and outside of the King of Zhou's palace were blocked. It is estimated that it will take less than two days to get the news from these clans' mansions. Collect a lot of money and food!”
Miao Shao sighed in his heart at Liu Yan's "cunning", and soon came to the main hall and entered the hall with a group of guard soldiers.
Zhu Gongzhen was also shocked when he saw this, thinking that Liu Yan was going to kill him directly and then embezzle his property.
"Liu, Mr. Liu, why are we like this? Why are we like this?"
Liu Yan looked at Zhu Gongzhen and couldn't help it. He walked directly to the bookcase and saw that it was a Wanli version of "The Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms" on it. He couldn't help but feel a black line drifting across his forehead.
"Your Highness has misunderstood. This is Miao Shao, the commander-in-chief of this town. He is here to report military affairs to this town."
Liu Yan smiled and said to Zhu Gongzhen: "Your Highness is at ease. Please continue to work with Gao Futai and Vice General Chen to calculate how much food the Zhou clan can donate."
Zhu Gongzhen agreed repeatedly, and then urged several accountants in the mansion to get busy, and the sound of the abacus crackling sounded again.
Gao Mingheng sighed in his heart: "You take people's money and food and ask them to do their own accounts. I guess Mr. Liu is the only one who can do this!"
Liu Yan then called Miao Shao aside and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Don't worry, sir. The brothers from the Guard Battalion have already started to take action. None of the Zhou vassal clans in the city can escape. The officers and soldiers of the various ministries are collecting money and food everywhere."
"very good!"
Liu Yan instructed: "Remember, all money and food must be put into the warehouse immediately. When the accounts here are completed, they will be handed over to Deputy Xun, so that Deputy Xun can check the accounts, physical objects, etc., and ration them to the soldiers and civilians in the city in the future." The food must also be approved by Deputy Xun!"
"Don't worry, sir. My subordinates understand the key points and will definitely handle this matter well."
After a whole day of work, Liu Yan collected a total of 878,952 stones of grain and 1.07 million silver from Zhou King Zhu Gongzhen and all Zhou vassal clans in Kaifeng City. More than six thousand taels.
The amount of this batch of money and food has exceeded Liu Yan's expectation. After coming up with this figure, Liu Yan was stunned for a while and then said to Zhu Gongzhen: "This money and food..."
Zhu Gongzhen thought that Liu Yan was dissatisfied, so he hurriedly said: "Mr. Liu, don't get me wrong, I and the other clan members are not hiding anything, it's just that a lot of money and food are hoarded in various cities, not concentrated in Kaifeng City. Many more were taken away by bandits, so these are all we have now.”
Liu Yan kept sighing, it was obvious that the vassal king was rich.
At this time, Liu Yan received money and food supplies, and the only weakness of the new army was strengthened, so he bid farewell to Zhu Gongzhen and left the palace with Gao Mingheng and Chen Yongfu.
"This town's subordinates have taken over the city defense. The officers and soldiers under Vice General Chen are temporarily on standby in the military camp in the city, ready for dispatch at any time."
"Gao Futai will have a harder time. Xun Jingyun, the governor of this town, is responsible for distributing money and food under the ration system. For specific instructions, please ask Gao Futai to bring someone to help."
What else could Gao Mingheng and Chen Yongfu say? Even the King of Zhou was stopped by Liu Yan and scolded, so naturally he could only obey the order.
"Haha, don't worry, Mr. Liu. I will definitely cooperate with Mr. Xun to eliminate Mr. Liu's worries."
Chen Yongfu was even more direct, clasping his fists and saying: "The last general takes orders!"
"Haha, with the help of these two adults, I believe our army will win this battle!"
Liu Yan was chatting with the two of them when he suddenly heard the fierce sound of war drums coming from the west of the city. Liu Yan looked and saw two piles of smoke burning on the west wall in the distance, which was an early warning that the enemy troops were gathering.
"Yes, the bandit army is about to attack the city!"
Gao Mingheng's heart tightened and he stumbled over his words.
Chen Yongfu also clasped his hands and looked at Liu Yan, wondering what kind of errand he would be assigned.
Liu Yan thought for a while and then called the messengers around him: "This is the order from the general of this town: the soldiers of the left and right camps should immediately go to the city and set up defenses according to the deployment!"
"Order the center camp, artillery camp, cavalry camp, and guard camp to reorganize immediately and line up outside the west city gate to prepare to face the bandit army!"
"Order the rear battalion to guard the government offices, treasury, arsenal, and various royal palaces in the city, and arrange for soldiers and horses to patrol the city. From this moment on, Kaifeng City begins to implement military control. Officials, civilians, and clans, as long as there is no warrant from this town, any People are not allowed to walk around freely on the streets, otherwise they will be treated as thieves and spies, and they will be shot without mercy!"
"yes!"
More than a dozen messengers dispersed in a hurry and rode their horses to deliver military orders throughout the city.
At this time, Liu Yancai looked at Gao Mingheng and Chen Yongfu and said, "Please Gao Futai, please take charge of the governor's office. First, together with my town governor Xun Jingyun, distribute rations to the people in the city for three days to stabilize the people's hearts."
Gao Mingheng clasped his fists and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Liu, I'll go right away!"
After saying that, Gao Mingheng left in a hurry.
"Vice General Chen, you immediately lead thousands of soldiers in your headquarters to set up defenses inside the west city gate. If Liu's army attacks today, that will be the main direction of the enemy's attack."
Chen Yongfu accepted the order with clasped fists and rode away.
Although Chen Yongfu surrendered to Li Zicheng in history, he was forced to surrender only after losing a fierce battle. He was different from those wallflowers on both sides. Moreover, the soldiers and horses under Chen Yongfu are rare elites in the Central Plains. Although they are not as elite as the border troops in various towns in Liaodong and Xuanfu Town, they can still withstand the siege of hundreds of thousands of bandit troops. It can be seen that they are still very capable. Combat strength.
Moreover, Chen Yongfu also resisted the Qing army in the end and ended up missing. Liu Yan could trust such a person, so he arranged him inside the west city gate. When necessary, Chen Yongfu could lead his troops to the city to assist in defense. Relieve the pressure on Zuoying soldiers.
Then Liu Yan also rode towards the west city wall. At this time, Zhang Yi, the commander of the left camp, was already dressed neatly and stood on the top of the Wengcheng to observe the enemy's situation. Jin Xuecheng, the commander of the left camp, and Shi Niuzhong, the commander of the central camp, were both Here.
In order to deal with the attack of the bandit army, Zhang Yi mobilized most of the troops from Zuoying. More than 8,000 soldiers were deployed in Wengcheng, the West Gate and the entire West City Wall. Relying on more than a dozen horse faces and numbers here, Numerous enemy towers, as well as fortifications such as barbicans and towers, were prepared to fight against the army of bandits outside the city.
Liu Yan climbed onto the wall of Wengcheng, and all the soldiers saluted. Immediately afterwards, Chen Yongfu also came with several subordinates and saluted Liu Yan without mentioning it.
Liu Yan asked about the situation, and Zhang Yi pointed to the bandit army outside the city and said: "According to the information provided by Vice General Chen of the Gen Army, the bandit army has been reorganized and divided into the middle camp, the left and right battalions, the front and rear camps, and the firearms Battalion, each battalion has a flag of a corresponding color, and the military is in good order. Sir, please take a look,"
"Cyan is the middle camp of the bandits, white is the left camp of the bandits, black is the front camp of the bandits, yellow is the rear camp of the bandits, and red is the firearms camp of the bandits. Except for the soldiers and horses of the bandits' right camp, the rest The bandits and soldiers have gathered here, it seems that Li Zicheng wants to take the big one!"
This was the first time that Liu Yan faced Li Zicheng's bandit army. It had to be said that at this time, Li Zicheng's troops had begun to look like a regular army. Each battalion had different banners, and each battalion had valiant cavalry, armored soldiers, They are divided into infantry and dead soldiers. Among them, the heroic cavalry is the cavalry, the armored soldiers are armored, the infantry is unarmored, and the dead soldiers are civilians brought from all over the country.
These were all intelligence collected by Wu Guojin and his troops along the way, and some were also provided by Chen Yongfu and Gao Mingheng.
Among these soldiers and horses, the number of dead soldiers was the largest, the equipment was the worst, and the combat effectiveness was also the worst. But even so, when seeing tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dead soldiers, with faces full of despair, carrying the old and supporting the young, and howling to kill, even the elites of hundreds of battles will be shaken, because such a scene is enough to destroy The psychological defense line of ordinary people!
According to Li Zicheng's military principles, dead soldiers who survive a few battles can be promoted to infantry, and those who survive a few more battles can be promoted to armored soldiers, and then to knights.
This is the "battlefield elimination" principle pursued by Li Zicheng, but such a principle must rely on a large population base and a sufficient number of dead soldiers to defeat a powerful army.
Liu Yan secretly said: "Perhaps this is the reason why Li Zicheng can only destroy everywhere and coerce people into becoming thieves, but cannot stop, because once he stops, the troops in his hands will begin to shrink. It is like a parasite. , once the host dies, the parasite has no ability to survive!"
Liu Yan observed for a while, then pointed to the red flag in the distance and said to everyone: "In this town, only Li Zicheng's firearms camp is a threat to the bandit soldiers and horses. The rest of the camps are all local chickens and dogs." !”
I don’t know if he talked too much to Zhou Wang Zhu Gongqi, but at this time Liu Yan also unknowingly said something with the flavor of the Three Kingdoms.
When Chen Yongfu heard this, he thought Liu Yan was too trusting, so he stepped forward to make some comments.
But when Chen Yongfu walked to the front, he saw the soldiers of the middle camp, artillery camp, cavalry camp, and guard camp who were leaving the city. The mighty torrent of armor, infantry, cavalry, and artillery drove out of the city one after another, and then quickly lined up to stand by. , with such military appearance and majesty, Chen Yongfu swallowed back all his words.
"With such troops at his disposal, Mr. Liu, no wonder he looks down on Li Zicheng!"
Some people died, but not completely...
