spend time

After dark, some soldiers were left on the Yuzhou city wall to keep watch, while the rest returned to their tents. The kitchen received the order during the day and slaughtered several fat pigs. Today's dinner was particularly sumptuous, with each soldier's bowl filled with fragrant broth and palm-sized pieces of meat. Those who performed particularly bravely received an extra piece of meat.

The high and mighty Master Zheng came specially tonight to have dinner with the soldiers, and in front of all the soldiers, he rewarded the soldiers who bravely defended the city and killed the enemy, and promised to promote them in the future.

The soldiers shouted loudly, "Long live the young master."

Zheng Chen smiled with satisfaction amid the cheers.

Zhao Wu was also extremely excited. His position was somewhat awkward before, as the soldiers all obeyed Lu Cheng's orders, and he had to give orders through Lu Cheng for any mission he wanted to send. Now that Lu Cheng was dead, he naturally became the chief general.

In order to win the hearts of the people and stabilize the morale of the army, Zhao Wu slept in the military camp that night.

Zheng Chen came out of the military camp and returned to his residence in the city. The smile on his face disappeared after he entered the study. He sat down at the desk, ground ink and started writing.

Peng Sihai accompanied him silently.

"The Four Seas!"

Again!
Peng Sihai sighed in his heart, but a look of joy appeared on his face: "What do you want, sir?"

Zheng Chen raised his head, his eyes bright and startling: "When I lead the troops back to the capital, I will destroy the Zheng family first!"

From this, we can see how much of a blow the farewell letter between father and son had on the young master!

Peng Sihai sighed in his heart again, and replied solemnly: "My lord, if you want to create a brand new dynasty and establish an unprecedented cause, you must naturally abandon all the bad habits and customs of the Liang Dynasty. All these aristocratic families should be eliminated. Let's start with the Zheng family. This is a great cause that will be recorded in history books. My lord is so decisive, I admire you very much!"

Zheng Chen found it very pleasing to the ear, raised his eyebrows and smiled: "It's a pity that you are the general of the imperial guards. I will make you a duke in the future, and you can attend court every day."

Last night he was talking about making him an earl, and today he was promoted to a duke.

Peng Sihai was calm and pleasantly surprised: "Thank you, sir. When one person succeeds, the whole family will benefit. I will follow you and have a bright future."

Zheng Chen laughed loudly.

After laughing, he continued to write with his head down.

Peng Sihai still maintained the good manners of a personal guard and would never peek at what his master was writing. However, the young master was alone with him, so he didn't need him to ask, and took the initiative to tell him: "Sihai, after I ascend the throne, I plan to reform the military system. Several armies in the capital are right under our noses, and they can't cause a big wave. The garrisons in various places are too far away from the capital, making it inconvenient to patrol, and the military camps are in chaos, just like local tyrants. This won't work! We must reform the system!"

Then, he talked incessantly about the reform plan.

Peng Sihai kept nodding in agreement, as if he was very interested in and knowledgeable about such topics.

Until the young master was satisfied with the conversation, he lowered his head and continued writing.

Peng Sihai sighed inwardly, silently waiting for the next time the young master would speak.

The young master was quite normal in front of outsiders during the day, but as soon as he stepped into the study, he would fall into the devil of talking to himself. This happened for several nights in a row. Moreover, every time he mentioned the Empress of the Daliang Dynasty...

"Jiang Shaohua is ridiculous for favoring Wang Jin." Zheng Chen suddenly stopped writing and sneered: "The Prime Minister's party has occupied half of the court, and Prime Minister Wang has been controlling the government for more than a year or two. We should root out the Prime Minister's party and kill them all and replace them with our own people."

Peng Sihai actually didn't understand court affairs, but he could hear the loopholes in the young master's words.

The prime minister's party occupied half of the court. If we want to uproot the prime minister's party, wouldn't half of the court be empty? Where can we find so many "own people" to fill the vacancies? If the court is in chaos, won't people's hearts be even more confused? However, these words must not be said out loud.

Peng Sihai agreed seriously: "Sir, what you said makes sense."

In this way, it was almost four o'clock in the morning. The young master finally fell asleep reluctantly, but after sleeping for less than two hours, he was awakened by the sound of siege outside the city gate and got out of bed.

Before leaving, he did not forget to wash up and put on new bright clothes. When he stood on the city gate, he was calm and composed.

Today's siege was very fierce from the beginning. A group of archers appeared from nowhere on the ladders, and with a rain of arrows, seven or eight of the Yuzhou soldiers on the city gate were shot down, causing a commotion.

Zheng Chen's expression remained unchanged, and he shouted, "Everyone, don't panic. Hold your shields in front of you."

Zhao Wu also shouted: "Prepare the golden juice, hot oil and hot water."

Gold juice is manure water, which is applied before shooting to increase the fatality rate after hitting the opponent. Hot oil and hot water can be poured directly onto the siege ladder. They are all powerful weapons for defending the city.

The new recruits were not familiar with these things, and in the process of carrying them, they actually overturned two barrels of hot oil, scalding their own people. It was very unlucky.

This scene seemed to foreshadow the difficulties in defending the city today.

As expected, at noon, the soldiers of the British Guard Camp attacked the city gate.

The morale of the Yuzhou rebel army, which was boosted by the tragic death of its commander yesterday, was soon fading away like the tide after the Yingwei Camp's slaughter broke through their psychological defenses.

Zhao Wu had no choice but to raise his sword and go into battle himself, shouting, "Everyone follow me and kill all the enemies!"

Zhao Wu's shout immediately attracted the attention of the soldiers of the Yingwei Camp. One of the tall, strong and brave men suddenly shouted, "That's the traitor Zhao Wu! The general said that if you kill Zhao Wu, you will be rewarded 100 gold coins and promoted three levels!"

The dozen or so strong men who rushed to the city gate actually rushed over together.

Zhao Wu's heart trembled, and he retreated while calling on the Yuzhou rebels around him to come forward to resist. Unfortunately, he had just taken over the Yuzhou army, and the soldiers did not have much loyalty to him as the new commander. These dozen strong men were too brave, and the rebels actually followed them to avoid them.

Zhao Wu was so anxious that he didn't even have time to curse. He waved his sword to block in panic. Fortunately, there were some loyal guards who followed him and fought hard together, so he barely saved his life. However, he suffered several injuries of varying severity all over his body and could no longer move.

Zheng Chen had no choice but to step forward and personally lead the rebel troops to defend the city.

……

The cruelty of this day is even worse than yesterday.

At nightfall, the British Guards called off the troops again. The soldiers on the city gate were exhausted and fell to the ground. At first glance, it seemed that there were corpses everywhere. In fact, it was not much different. There were too many casualties on the city gate today.

Someone whispered, "We can't defend Yuzhou City anymore."

"Let's run away!"

"Yes, we escape from the north gate and flee into the mountains. After the imperial army withdraws, we can sneak out. At least we can save our lives."

"Are you going to escape or not? Anyway, I will leave tonight." (End of this chapter)