Even Wang Shide next to him felt a little strange. Zhang Zhun meant that he obviously wanted Li Yan to lead the troops, but the premise was not to give Li Yanhu the main force of the army, and not to give any weapons and equipment, what does this mean? Do you believe Li Yan?

Zhang Zhun asked slowly: "In the imperial court's official army, there are a considerable number of Liaodong troops, and their cavalry is still relatively powerful. Without the main force of the Tiger Ben Army to assist in the battle, can you stop the cavalry attack of the Liaodong Army? ”

Li Yan said confidently: "I am holding on to the city, condescending to counterattack, no matter how good the cavalry of the Liaodong Army can fight, what can I do?" ”

Zhang Zhun nodded slowly, was silent for a moment, and suddenly said, "Then tell me, what do you think about attacking the seal?" The premise is still that I don't give you any Tiger Ben Army troops, and if I don't give you any weapons and equipment, I will give you a name, well, it is the commander of the Tiger Ben Army Li Yan Legion. The personnel of the troops, such as "equipment, training, organization, and command", are all in charge of you alone. What do you think? Have faith? ”

Li Yan suddenly came to his senses and immediately began to talk endlessly. He finally understood what Zhang Zhun meant. Zhang Zhun did not believe him and did not give him troops and equipment, on the contrary, Zhang Zhun fully trusted him, directly gave him the power to form a legion, and handed over all the matters of attacking Kaifeng to him.

This kind of trust made Li Yan feel that his heart was heavy and felt suffocated. In the face of such trust, if he doesn't pull up a legion well and doesn't quickly conquer Kaifeng, he will be sorry for Zhang Zhun's trust. He secretly vowed to take Kaifeng down as soon as possible "even if it is open".

"Don't get excited, speak slowly."

Zhang Zhun's eyes flashed, and he said eloquently.

Giving Li Yan full power and being fully responsible for the affairs of attacking and opening the seal was definitely not a whim of Zhang Zhun. In fact, when he first met Li Yan, he had such thoughts. Lu Xiangsheng, Li Yan, and even Sun Chuanting, Dolgon and others, Zhang Zhun decided that "at the right time, they will let them lead the troops alone."

A strong empire needs a group of people who are actively expanding their territory. These characters should be strong aggressive, with strong colonization.

To put it simply, it is a group of people who conquer ** very strongly. In layman's terms, it is a restless person. If the top of an empire is "all obedient little sheep, it is definitely not enterprising enough, and it is not enough to keep it." Such an empire, Zhang Zhun doesn't want it. Like generals like Li Yan and Lu Xiangsheng, Zhang Zhun is fully hands-off, "Their loyalty is not to be doubted." People like Sun Chuanting and Dolgon" Zhang Zhun will also use it appropriately, and their loyalty needs to be guarded against. However, Zhang Zhun was not worried about their rebellion. He was able to defeat them before, and of course he could defeat them later.

Let Li Yan form a legion by himself" is based on cultivating Li Yan's bloodiness and ability. If Li Yan held an official position in the main force of the Tiger Army, his ability would be "difficult to be honed", because relatively speaking, "the weapons and equipment of the Tiger Army were still too advanced, and it was easy to cover up other deficiencies", resulting in the officers often receiving insufficient training.

Only by forming a legion by himself and using the captured weapons and equipment can Li Yan's ability be fully exercised. If he can pull up a legion to "conquer Kaifeng", it shows that his ability has reached a certain level and can accept more difficult tasks. If he can't complete this task, it means that he needs to undergo more training.

"Thank you, Lord Governor, for your trust!"

Li Yan said with a slight choked up, and then he immediately began his own story.

Li Yan believes that Kaifeng is the capital of Henan Province, with a household registration of one million "prosperous business, and its wealth is more than ten times that of Luoyang. In Luoyang, only one Fu Wang is wealthy, and the others "don't have much oil and water." However, Kaifeng is different. There are many wealthy families in Kaifeng City, "everyone has a lot of property. When these rich families gather, their wealth may be more than that of the Fu Wangfu.

Zhang Zhun said with some confusion: "In Kaifeng City, there are really so many rich people? ”

Li Yan said affirmatively: "Of course! In the land of Heluo, can there be less wealth? ”

Zhang Zhun nodded and said eloquently: "You can tell me the details." In the absence of the main force of the Tiger Ben Army to participate in the battle, how are you going to conquer Kaifeng. ”

Li Yan nodded and said: "I have lived in Kaifeng for a lot of days, but I can only know the specific defense of Kaifeng." There is an upper city outside Kaifeng City, which is also called the outer city "two or three miles away from the inner city." It is said that there are a total of 40 miles and 223 steps around this earthen city, only the city foundation remains, there is no city gate, "chariots, horses and pedestrians are all passing through the city......

Zhang Zhun asked curiously, "Why don't you want the city gate?" ”

Li Yan explained: "In order to prevent the river flood, all the gates of the earth city were filled with earth. Zhang Zhun nodded, indicating that he understood.

In the future, Li Zicheng conquered Kaifeng and attacked several times in a row, but it was unsuccessful, and it also caused great losses to the troops. Li Zicheng was furious, so he ordered the Yellow River embankment to be dug and Kaifeng was submerged. This is a great tragedy in the history of the late Ming Dynasty, but for some reason, this tragedy was subconsciously covered up.

Li Yan continued: "This earth city seems to be a waterproof embankment outside Kaifeng City, and there is no defense." But the inner city is very strong, the second inner city is the Jin Dynasty moved the capital to Kaifeng after rebuilding, the outside is brick, the inside is soil. Legend has it that when Kaifeng was rebuilt, the soil was transported from the Tiger Prison Pass, "so the soil is very strong."

Although this legend may not be credible, I have seen the Kaifeng city wall with my own eyes, not only the soil is excellent, but also the soil is mixed with lime. ”

"This inner city is five feet high, and there are five enemy towers built on it, all with arrows and cannon holes. There are five big city towers, four corner towers, and twenty-four star towers, all of which are arranged according to 20 nights. There is a trench around the city. "Five zhang wide at the bottom, two zhang deep. There are slab bridges outside the five outer span moats, commonly known as live suspension bridges. Kaifeng City is so strong, it is only good to outwit, not to attack hard. If you want to attack hard, you must prepare more siege artillery. Of course, explosives packs are also available. ”

Zhang Zhun asked carefully: "Is there water in the moat in all seasons?" ”

Li Yan nodded and said: "There are trenches on the southeast side, and the water is very deep all year round. The northwest side is higher and tends to dry up in winter or on dry days. Zhang Zhun turned his head to look at Wang Shide, and said casually: "Entering the city from the West Gate, what do you think?" ”

Wang Shide replied: "There are five gates in Kaifeng, only the west gate has no moon city, and the gate is straight, and there is only one gate. The other four gates have moon castles, and there are gates that are triple or quadruple and "zigzag and swirling." Legend has it that the four gates are built in this way, "I am afraid of going out of the way, and the leylines of Kaifeng come from the northwest, so the west gate does not repair the moon city" only a straight gate. It is more appropriate for the General Staff to choose to attack the city from Ximen. ”

Li Yan nodded and said, "We are going straight from Luoyang to Kaifeng, and only Ximen is the closest. If you go around the west gate and attack another city, you will be easily discovered by the city. ”

Zhang Zhun suddenly said: "I heard that the five gates of Kaifeng City are not right" Isn't this west gate in the middle of the west city? ”

Wang Shide smiled and said: "It's the five doors that are wrong, it's not that the five doors are wrong." When the city was built, it was afraid of leaking the vigor, so the east gate was northern, the Song gate was southern, the south gate was western, and the north gate was eastern. Kaifeng people have a saying: the three mountains are not obvious, and the five doors are not right. ”

Zhang Zhun asked curiously: "Where is there a mountain in Kaifeng?" Li Yan replied with a smile: "Kaifeng was originally a mountainless, but according to the words of the surveyor, the corner of the claw in the West Gate is a mountain, the street is a mountain, and the Iron Tower Temple is a mountain, which is called Yishan." Because there are actually no mountains, only the terrain is slightly high, so it is called the three mountains. Zhang Zhun said with a smile: "If it goes well, the army will attack the West Gate, where should it occupy first?" Li Yan said confidently: "The governor of Henan, the political envoy and the table department are all in the western half of the city" is close to the west gate, and there must be a group of men and horses to occupy it separately, so that the civil and military officials of Kaifeng are like a group of dragons without a leader. It is necessary to have an elite army to attack the palace city and capture the king of Zhou alive. ”

"Hearing that the king of Zhou has a hundred guards, he is often rewarded, maybe he will hold the palace and drag the army into the city, he must send cavalry to occupy the north gate and patrol the north city to prevent the king of Zhou from escaping, and attack the palace city on the other hand. If the guards of the king of Zhou really defended the palace city, then they would have to climb the ladder to the city. Zhang Zhun asked suspiciously: "Is Miyagi very strong?" Li Yan said: "Miyagi has two layers. The one on the outside is called Xiao Wall, "more than two zhang high, and it is very easy to break." The inner side is the Forbidden City to the north, the city is five zhang high, there is a huā battlement mouth on it, and there is a horse barrier wall below. As long as our army enters the Xiao Wall, King Zhou will become a turtle in an urn in the Forbidden City, and there is no way to escape. He probably did not hesitate to reward him for a while, so that the hundred guards would defend the city for him and wait for help. There are several wells in the Forbidden City, and there is a lot of grain and coal in storage. If the hundred guards of the Zhou Palace's palace resisted desperately, "In addition to climbing the city with ladders, our army can also use the artillery captured in Kaifeng City to attack the city." ”

Zhang Zhun nodded and said with a smile: "As long as Kaifeng is broken, if King Zhou wants to resist with the palace, let's have one, catch turtles in the urn." Good! Li Yan's "matter of attacking and opening the seal" will be handed over to you! ”

Li Yan hurriedly knelt down and thanked him deeply.

Zhang Zhun immediately announced that Li Yan was officially given the authority to form a legion. The human, material and financial resources of the legion, the Tiger Ben Army does not care about it, it is to give a name. How much, how many people, how many weapons and equipment, all of them are solved by Li Yan himself.

A day later, the news that the Tiger Ben Army was going to attack Kaifeng suddenly appeared in the hustle and bustle, and there were mountains and mountains that were about to rain and the wind was full of buildings. The people of Kaifeng City are naturally eagerly looking forward to the arrival of the Tiger Army. However, in the opinion of Yu Yinggui, the governor of Henan, "it's not too wonderful.!" ~！

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