The Red Mansion: From a Small Pawn to a Leader

Chapter 31 Accident
Study behind the big tent

Li Hu was sitting at the desk, writing something with a pen.

"Fengxiang City has high and thick walls, which makes it easy to defend but difficult to attack. Now there is an additional earth wall and moat. If we attack by force, we will suffer heavy casualties." Zhang Cheng's voice came in.

Wang Daniu's voice: "There will always be casualties in war."

Zhang Cheng: "In war, people will die, but it depends on whether the deaths are worth it."

Wang Daniu slammed the table and said, "What's the value? It's enough to take over Fengxiang City!"

Zhang Cheng raised his voice: "I am afraid that we will not be able to take the city after a long siege. It would be fine if all the young and strong soldiers in the patrol battalion were killed, but what if the old soldiers were also seriously injured?!"

The big tent fell into deathly silence, and time seemed to have stopped at this moment.

Finally, Li Hu put down his pen, blew on the ink, then folded the letter and stuffed it into the cowhide envelope.

Inside the big tent, Zhang Cheng and Wang Daniu sat in front of low tables on both sides, neither of them saying a word.

There was a sound of footsteps, and Li Hu came out holding the cowhide envelope.

Zhang Cheng and Wang Daniu stood up quickly.

Li Hu: "Why are you not arguing anymore?" He shouted to the person outside the account: "Come on!"

A personal soldier came in in response.

Li Hu handed over the cowhide envelope and said, "You must leave immediately and deliver this to the prince within five days."

The soldier took the envelope and answered loudly, "Yes!" Then he turned around and strode out.

Li Hu walked to the low table in the middle and sat down, waving his hand: "Sit down, sit down. Is there no other way except for the violent attack?" He picked up the tea bowl, took a sip and put it down again.

There was silence.

Li Hu: "Just say what you think." He glanced at the two of them.

Wang Daniu looked confused.

Li Hu shook his head and turned his gaze to Zhang Cheng.

Zhang Cheng replied: "General, we can dig a tunnel outside the moat at night and use gunpowder to blow down the city wall."

Wang Daniu: "There are mother-and-child cannons on the city wall"

Zhang Cheng: "There will always be casualties in war."

Wang Daniu was stunned for a moment, then glared at Zhang Cheng.

Li Hu: "Go on."

Zhang Cheng continued, "After selecting the location, we can dig more than ten cover tunnels around the siege tunnel at the same time. This can not only confuse the bandits, but also be transformed into a siege tunnel at any time. Outside the moat, we can dig vertically down more than five meters deep, with more than two meters of partitions, so it will not be soaked by the river water and will not collapse."

Li Hu nodded.

There was a sound of hurried footsteps, and Jia Yun's voice came from outside the tent: "General."

Li Hu: "Come in."

Jia Yun came in excitedly, bowed to Li Hu, and then handed a piece of paper to Li Hu with both hands: "General, the old man did not lie."

Li Hu took it and looked at it, then said to Zhang Cheng, "No need to go through so much trouble, just dig three feet." After that, he handed it to Jia Yun.

Jia Yun understood and handed the paper to Zhang Cheng.

After reading it, Zhang Cheng handed it back to Jia Yun, then stood up and looked at Li Hu.

Li Hu smiled and said, "Everything is ready, let's go."

Zhang Cheng: “Yes.”

Looking at Zhang Cheng's back, Wang Daniu also stood up and looked at Li Hu.

Li Hu ignored him and looked at Jia Yun: "After you capture Fengxiang City, you can be promoted to captain. Then I will hand over the firearms battalion to you."

"What about me?!" Wang Daniu looked at Li Hu at a loss.

Li Hu said unhappily: "Follow me!"

Wang Daniu patted his chest and said, "I'm scared to death." Jia Yun knelt down and said, "Thank you, General." After that, he kowtowed heavily and knelt there.

Li Hu looked at him and smiled: "Don't kneel down at every turn in the future. Look at those two, they never kneel down and kowtow to me."

Wang Daniu: "Why didn't you kowtow? We kowtowed when we were greeting each other during the New Year."

Li Hu smiled and glanced at him, then said to Jia Yun, "Then kowtow during the New Year's greetings."

Jia Yun was overjoyed, as these words meant that he had gained Li Hu's approval, so he replied, "Yes." He kowtowed again and then stood up.

Suddenly, there was the sound of artillery fire outside the tent.

Li Hu stood up and said, "Let's go and take a look." Then he strode out.

The group came to the high ground again. Li Hu raised the telescope and looked towards the East Lake. Cannons were being fired from the city wall and from under the city.

Li Hu was indeed wealthy now. He obtained eight submachine guns, more than a thousand bird guns, and a considerable amount of property from the remnants of the rebels and bandits who surrendered voluntarily.

The difference is that the shots fired on the city wall were shot with shotgun shells, while those fired below the city were fired with solid bullets. The two different types of bullets had a range difference of more than a hundred steps.

So, the bandits on the city wall fought alone.

At this moment, a cannonball landed on the city wall, bursting into flames!

Wang Daniu said excitedly: "Well done!"

Before he could finish his words, a solid bullet hit the ground hard and the gunner was forced to retreat.

Wang Daniu was stunned at first, then he started cursing.

Li Hu put down the telescope. It really opened his eyes to see that these bandits knew military tactics.

There was a sound of horse hooves, and a group of more than twenty riders came galloping towards this side.

Li Hu recognized the leader, he was the captain of the personal guards of Duke Shanguo Shi Guangzhu.

The captain of the personal guards jumped off his sweaty horse and took out a letter: "General Li, this is a handwritten letter from the Duke. The Duke said that it is a matter of great importance, so please open it and read it immediately." Then he handed the letter over.

Li Hu took the letter, opened it and read it, his eyebrows twitched.

Before the government troops surrounded Nanzheng County, some of the rebels escaped. Shi Guangzhu concluded that these rebels would pass through the Qinling Mountains via the Ziwu Road and attack Xi'an. In addition, Shi Guangzhu suspected that the rebel leader was among these people.

Meridian Road.

Li Hu looked at Shi Guangzhu's letter and then at Fengxiang City. He felt that it was difficult to deal with this. Two tables of guests came to one table. Moreover, there were at least tens of thousands of bandits in Fengxiang City. Even if he wanted to leave now, he couldn't.

At this time, there was another burst of hurried horse hoof sounds, and everyone looked over.

A guard from the Imperial Household Department whipped the horse under his crotch and galloped towards this side.

Li Hu was slightly startled, and the man had already jumped off his horse and ran towards Li Hu while shouting, "General Li!"

Li Hu strode forward.

The man took off his sweat-soaked bag and said breathlessly, "Traitor, rebel." Then he fell in front of Li Hu.

Li Hu took the bundle from the guard and said, "Quick, help him up and send him to the military doctor." He pulled out the cowhide envelope inside, tore it open and took a look, and was shocked.

The rebels changed their route at Sanhe Pass and went up the Pu River.

The rebels changed their route. Li Hu: "Map!"

The bodyguard pulled out a map from the bamboo tube at his waist and unfolded it.

Li Hu's eyes quickly scanned the map and finally fell on the exit of Tangluo Road, Heishuiyukou in Zhouzhi County.

It looks familiar. By the way, isn’t this the place where my uncle, the first emperor of the Dashun Dynasty, was defeated?
Five hundred miles, no, less than three hundred miles, minus the time the guards spend on the road. Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. Li Hu must reach the entrance of Heishui Valley and set up an ambush within three days. Walking two hundred miles in three days is life-threatening.

Li Hu turned his attention to Fengxiang City again. Four or five hundred meters, it would take seven or eight days to dig the distance!
He thought about it and decided that if he wanted to break into the city tonight, he could only fill up the moat in the East Lake that was more than ten feet deep, and then blow up the city wall.

Then we would dig tunnels and use the excavated soil to fill the moat.

Li Hu made up his mind and said to Wang Daniu, "Call Zhang Cheng back." After that, he turned and walked towards the camp.

(End of this chapter)