Chapter 253 Preparation for the War

Li Pu and He Zhaojie hid in a corner outside Gaoyou Mansion. Listening to the sound of firecrackers in the city, their mood gradually faded. They had been anxiously waiting for the qi Buhua in the city since they left the city in the middle of the night.

The lame general was afraid to take back the Gaoyou Mansion with thousands of confiscated weapons? Both of them were unsure, but listening to the movements in the Gaoyou Mansion, they probably failed.

When it dawned, the sound of the muskets gradually became sparse, and finally it disappeared.

"Mr. Li, let's go quickly!" He Zhaojie advised. If Li Pu is found missing in Gaoyou Mansion and send cavalry to search, it will probably end up with the same result as timid.

Li Pu did not hesitate. If he had the courage, he would not have run out with He Zhaojie.

A lonely carriage, walking the path, heading south.

"Ruohan, during confinement, you must not touch cold water. If you have any questions, leave it to others to do." After Zhang Yang got up in the morning, he exercised in the yard. After returning, he found that Ruohan had prepared his face wash water.

"Brother Shicheng, I'm fine. Besides, I'm just a slaughter of face washing water." Liu Ruohan said.

"That's not OK. If you don't take care of it now, you will suffer from the disease in the future." Zhang Yang said, looking at Ruohan, whose face was still a little pale.

Today is the tenth day after giving birth, and Ruohan has been unable to stay any longer and always wants to do this and that, but that's the case. This time it's the longest time for her to stay by her, so of course she wants to do something for herself.

"Brother, brother, there is an emergency." Outside the door, a guard shouted anxiously: "There is someone coming to Gaoyou Mansion, and there is an emergency military information to report to my brother."

"Let him wait in the living room, and I'll go there right away." Zhang Yang just put the towel on his face, and the sound from his mouth passed by the towel and changed a little.

Liu Ruohan was shocked: There is an emergency military situation in Gaoyou Mansion? She looked at Brother Shicheng's back, afraid that she would leave again this time. She really wanted to go up and hugged Brother Shicheng's broad back from behind and told him not to leave. However, Liu Ruohan did not do this, and she could not hold Brother Shicheng back.

Zhang Yang washed his face briefly, turned his head to look at Ruohan: "Ruohan, I'll go out."

"Wait!" Ruohan helped Zhang Yang to tidy up the corners of his clothes: "He is already a high-ranking official, so he has to pay attention to his appearance."

Zhang Yang glanced at the child who was still sleeping at the bedside again and walked out quickly.

"Brother." The messenger had been walking back and forth in the living room for several times. When he saw Zhang Yang coming over, he quickly said, "There is something wrong with Gaoyou Mansion. Mr. Shi asks Brother to go back quickly."

"What happened?" Zhang Yang asked.

"The arsenal exploded, dozens of houses burned in Gaoyou Mansion, and all the Tartars imprisoned in the camp ran out."

"What?" Zhang Yang was moved: "The Tartars ran out? Did they run outside Gaoyou Mansion?"

"No, all of them were wiped out in the city, just..."

"Just what?"

"It's just that Li Pu is not sure where he is going. Mr. Shi is searching people from door to door in Gaoyou Mansion."

Li Pu ran away? Zhang Yang frowned. He originally wanted to keep this chess piece, but unexpectedly, what was left was a bomb and the Tartars. Why did they all get up over the whole night? There must be a problem in the middle!

However, holding the responsibility accountable is a matter in the future. The most important thing now is to deal with the situation that may occur.

Li Pu ran away. The worst possibility was to run back to the province. The province might let Zhu Yuanzhang go and besiege him with all his might, because he imprisoned the prefect and Daruwachi without authorization, which was the face of the province. After all, he was still obeying the province's rule, but if he did such a thing, the province would definitely not be able to swallow his breath.

"Guard, guard." Zhang Yang shouted.

"Brother, what's the matter?" The two people standing guard outside walked in.

"Send four ten-man teams to ride fast horses and go and report the news immediately."

"Yes, brother." As he said that, the two of them were about to leave.

"Wait, I haven't told anyone to report the message!" Zhang Yang couldn't help but want to curse. He has been following him for half a year and is still so brainless.

"Yes, brother."

"Go back to the salt field, Taizhou, and base separately, let the salt field and Taizhou be vigilant, send scouts to strictly prevent the attacks of the Tatars!" Zhang Yang said: "Let the base speed up the production of gunpowder to supplement the losses of Gaoyou Mansion, and get the taxi letters outside. Don't transport salt in the near future."

"Also, call Lu Zhen here quickly and give him a task."

"Yes," the guards quickly walked out. Something must have happened. The eldest brother's face looked so ugly.

After a while, Lu Zhen rushed over, and he was patrolling the city defense at the top of the city.

"Brother, what's the matter?" Lu Zhen asked.

"I'm going back to Gaoyou Mansion. All the things here will be left to you." Zhang Yang said.

"Brother is leaving so soon?" Lu Zhen said: "I thought my brother would spend more days with my sister-in-law."

"I think too! But something big happened in Gaoyou Mansion." Zhang Yang said: "You must strengthen your vigilance in Xinghua and send more cavalry patrols, especially in the south. No matter how many Tartars come, you must resist me. If you lose Xinghua City, you should not come back to see me."

Lu Zhen's face sterned: "Yes, brother, don't worry, we have 5,000 elite soldiers, and we have more than enough guards to protect Xinghua."

"In addition to Xinghua, we must also pay attention to the base of Desheng Lake. Now there are only two hundred-man teams stationed in Killing Port. If you send two hundred-man teams over, I will transfer some of Yuanheng's naval forces. In short, there will be no problem!"

"Yes, brother." Lu Zhen's eyes shone. The half-year comfortable life did not wipe everyone's teeth. Especially after expanding the manpower, everyone was accumulating strength and ready to wait for the moment of launching a large-scale counterattack on the Tartars. Now, there is finally a war again.

Zhang Yang arranged everything here and went straight back to Gaoyou Mansion from Xinghua.

Since the Tartars in Gaoyou Mansion have been completely wiped out, they can be considered a broken face with the province, and there is no need to settle their home in Xinghua. They can take their mother and Ruohan to Gaoyou Mansion. Gaoyou Mansion has its own base camp to guard the city, with a large city and a large navy camp outside the city. The newly equipped artillery is also on the city wall. Even if there are 100,000 Tartars, they will guarantee that they will never return. However, Ruohan has just given birth and must not be affected by the wind and cold. Zhang Yang did not want Ruohan to be affected, so he had to leave her in Xinghua.

The atmosphere before the war immediately became tense.

When he returned to Gaoyou Mansion, Zhang Yang immediately found Shi Nai'an.

Shi Nai'an was very ashamed. Since he was persuaded by Bian Yuanheng and followed Zhang Shicheng, he had always been a predecessor and then made a decision. Before he knew it, he had always regarded himself as the military advisor in his works. In fact, although the lord did not give him this position, he was already the military advisor of the entire army. When the lord was away, he could even mobilize various armies, and the lord gave him great power.

Shi Nai'an has been planning for the future of this army. Just two days ago, he was thinking about expanding territory and developing southward. Unexpectedly, there was a problem within the outside world before it was developed.

The Tartars, who had been controlled, suddenly made an attack. If they hadn't adapted to the situation and sent back the troops of Shi Laoer who was responsible for surveillance in time, they would have almost made a big mistake.

Now, Shi Nai'an looked at his lord's face, wondering if his lord would give him bad words. If so, he had to go to Xinghua. As the highest leader left behind, the responsibility was of course his own.

"Mr. Shi, there is no news about Li Pu yet?" Zhang Yang asked, without any blame in his words.

"The whole city has been searched. If it is not expected, Li Pu has escaped." Shi Nai'an said. He did not blame him in his lord's words, and Shi Nai'an felt a little relieved.

"Let Guanzhong be responsible and focus on inquiring about the trends in Yangzhou. I suspect that Li Pu has returned to Yangzhou." Zhang Yang said.

"Lord, I have an unshirkable responsibility when this happened." Shi Nai'an said, even if the lord did not blame him, he must bear what he should bear.

"We are not prophets. We cannot guarantee that we will not make mistakes in many things. However, learning lessons from each mistake is what we should do more." Zhang Yang said: "I have a responsibility to suddenly attack the Tartars. After half a year, we have relaxed our vigilance against the Tartars. We are still fighting. We have underestimated the Tartars. At any time, we cannot underestimate our opponents. We despise our opponents strategically, and we must pay attention to our opponents tactically. Only in this way can we go further!"

"The lord said it very reasonably." Shi Nai'an was shocked by Zhang Yang's two sentences just now: despise the opponent strategically and attach importance to the opponent tactically. You must not relax. You think that with advanced weapons, you can win a battle. It is very dangerous. It is the person who decides the outcome of the war.

"Now, what I doubt most is that our city gate was sealed at night. If I don't know how to leave, I can understand it. However, when Li Pu left, he was a civil servant who had obediently listened to our orders. This means that there are their inner supporters in Gaoyou Mansion." Zhang Yang said.

Shi Nai'an also had a premonition. This inner response was very cunning. He must have been lurking in Gaoyou Mansion for a long time and arranged everything very carefully. He first blew up the arsenal, then robbed Li Pu and Yibuhua. Then, all the Tartars in the camp dug out of tunnels, almost causing the situation in Gaoyou Mansion to get out of control. All this is a coincidence? It is absolutely impossible.

"We used to only focus on the outside information, and we should also establish an intelligence agency for ourselves." Zhang Yang said: "If Li Pu escaped this time, he would not have wings to fly out. At least, some of the soldiers guarding the city gate were bribed by them."

Zhang Yang did not want to create an institution like the Jinyiwei that was above all officials. The political chaos in the late Ming Dynasty had a lot to do with the Jinyiwei's misconduct. However, now the army is getting bigger and bigger, and a supervision mechanism has to be established. Although people's hearts will change. When they encounter an opportunity to get rich, it is difficult to guarantee that no one will take risks. How did Li Pu walk? The city gates are all good, and there must be a guard who has been bribed by him.

It is very simple to find out. Just investigate secretly. The city gate guard has been spending money recently and can follow the clues and find out the traitors. People like this must be severely punished! The military should be strictly governed, otherwise, once the military discipline is relaxed, the troops will have no combat effectiveness.

In addition to severely punishing the city gate guards who had affair with the enemy, there is another way, which is to educate the soldiers more often, so that this string can be maintained in their minds: they are the soldiers of the people and the guardian gods of the people. They picked up the Tianque gun, not to get promoted or make money, but to drive away the Tartars and build a new country.

Shi Nai'an was shocked, and he didn't expect that in this quarter, there must be a small number of people in the team. In addition to what the lord said just now, for example, why didn't the soldiers who were patrolling the night notice that someone was wandering outside the arsenal in the middle of the night?

"Lord, all the soldiers in the arsenal have been killed in the explosion, and there should be no traitor among them." Shi Nai'an continued Zhang Yang's thinking analysis.

"Apart from the city gate, we are not sure about everything else. Without a sure thing, we cannot arrest people by guessing alone, otherwise we will lose our military spirit." Zhang Yang said: "The other doubts, such as the soldiers who were responsible for the night watch that night, were all allowed to investigate Guanzhong secretly, and we cannot wrongly accuse the soldiers."

Zhang Yang clearly remembered how destructive the top-down cleaning operation would have during the War of Resistance Against Japan. The Red Army was forced to the Long March, except for the wrong route left, which was related to the loss of a large number of experienced commanders and fighters caused by the cleaning movement. He did not want to do the same mistake.

"We must strictly enforce military discipline and always keep the strings in our minds tight. We must never relax our vigilance before we completely drive the Tartars away." Zhang Yang said.

"Yes, the lord is right." Shi Nai'an said.

"In addition to these problems, we must now be prepared to deal with the worst possible situation." Zhang Yang said.

"Yes, lord, this is also the reason why I hurriedly asked lord to come back." Shi Nai'an returned to normal: "If Li Pu goes back, then the province will definitely have actions, and it will be big actions."

"So let's continue." Zhang Yang said, his thoughts coincided with Shi Nai'an.

"The province is currently mainly dealing with Zhu Yuanzhang from Chuzhou. There has been no progress in the past six months. The terrain of Chuzhou is complicated and the Tartars cannot get any advantage, and that Zhu Yuanzhang is too capable. After getting the news here, the Tartars will definitely lead their troops back to aid and kill us in the bud."

"Then aren't the Tartars afraid that Zhu Yuanzhang will take Yangzhou?"

"There are all mountains on the east side of Chuzhou, with only a few exits. As long as the Tatars send some troops to defend the exit, Zhu Yuanzhang will not be able to come out easily. It is almost certain that the large army will come back to deal with us." Shi Nai'an said.

"Why?"

"Because we violated the bottom line of the Tartars." Shi Nai'an said. When we made this decision, we knew that once the secret was leaked, it would definitely be the result.

"In order to defend our revolutionary fruits, we will fight at will!" Zhang Yang said: "I have ordered Taizhou, salt fields, bases, and Xinghua to make preparations before the war. Since things have happened, we will no longer hide our strength and let the Tatars see that we are not only able to seize Gaoyou Mansion, but also able to fight to the south of the Yangtze River!"

Shi Nai'an's eyes lit up. The lord was indeed not a thing in the pool. He could rise up in Xinghua. In addition to his advanced weapons, he was also extremely courageous. The lord had already targeted Jiangnan, right?

"Yes, lord, I will let Gaoyou Mansion enter a state of war readiness immediately."

"Well, our Gaoyou Mansion will take on the main force of the Tartars. Moreover, the arsenal has just been burned, and I have ordered the base to speed up the production of ammunition and transport it over." Zhang Yang said.

"Brother, our battle will be shocking. What if the court is angry and sends a large army to encircle us?"

"What should come, will come sooner or later. After the development of the past six months, we have already gained more sufficient strength. If the Tartars dare to come and cause trouble for us this time, we will definitely let them go without a return!" Zhang Yang said: "Now, the uprisings around have reached a low point. It is time for us to raise our arms and shout. The Gaoyou Mansion we occupy is just a small area. If you want to achieve greater development, you can only cross the Yangtze River and occupy most of the south! Turn it into our solid base."

"Lord is wise." Since the lord has clearly shown his position, then the next thing is to prepare to welcome the coming Tartars, fight back the coming Tartars, and cross the Yangtze River with the remnant of victory, and march into Pingjiang!

Shi Nai'an's eyes were full of longing.

I don’t know when the Tartars will come? According to the Tartars’ movement speed, it will probably take half a month to gather enough strength?

In Yangzhou City, the provincial government office is holding a celebration banquet.
To be continued...