From beggar to emperor: I am not Zhu Yuanzhang

Tao Ya made Yang Xingmi very angry this time. He pointed at Tao Ya and said angrily: "Where are the things I told you? Where are the white clothes, white armor, and white flags? Every battalion can complete it on schedule, why are you the only one who turns a deaf ear and openly defy!"

Tao Ya's mouth moved, but she didn't say anything. It took her a long time to squeeze out a sentence:

"Last...last night, Lao Tao drank too much and forgot."

"You drank too much again. You have ruined so many things because of drinking. Why don't you have a good memory? If you don't engage in military law this time, how will you convince the public and lead this team?"

Yang Xingmi decided to punish Tao Ya severely this time.

"Here comes Tao Ya, who blatantly disobeyed military orders. To maintain strict military discipline, he was dragged out and executed."

As soon as the words came out, everyone was in an uproar. Yuan Xi and Liu Wei were both shocked. Why, you have to kill the general for such a trivial matter, right?

Yuan Xi and Liu Wei unanimously interceded for Tao Ya:

"General, don't be impulsive. Tao Ya's crime will not lead to death. General, please be careful."

"Brother, although the fourth brother is greedy for drinking, he has not committed any serious crime. I hope that eldest brother will spare his life."

The soldiers outside the tent also knelt down to plead for Tao Ya. In fact, everyone had the same idea in their hearts. For Gao Pian, a man they had only met once, and to honor him, they had to kill their own brothers. No one could understand this.

Do you think Yang Xingmi really wants to kill Tao Ya?

He is not that stupid, not for a tall guy. He did this to slap Tao Ya, who was greedy for drinking, to prevent the slightest mistake. Tao Ya is a drunkard. If he doesn't give him a crack, sooner or later he will ruin something big and get into trouble because of his drinking. There have been too many lessons in history about this.

The other is to maintain his own authority. Everyone can obey the orders he gives personally. Why is it that only Tao Ya turns a deaf ear and doesn't take it seriously? Is it just because he is my brother? If I don't hold people accountable, will others say: You see, brothers are just different. It's all about what others do, and they can't be punished.

Everyone thinks so, who will be loyal and work for him in the future. On the battlefield, will those who are not his sworn brothers turn sides and surrender?

Purchasing white clothes, white armor and white flags may seem like a trivial matter, but in fact the hidden dangers behind it are so great that Yang Xingmi has to be wary.

An excellent big brother is by no means a nice guy, but one who knows how to control, and pays attention to both kindness and power. He has a hard hand and a soft hand, a slap in the face and a couple of rubs. This is a qualified leader.

You need to make your brothers love you and fear you at the same time, so that you can achieve a balance. Leaving either side will be bad.

If there is only love and no restraint and discipline, then it will be a mess, laughing and joking, hello, me, hello, everyone, and all national laws and family rules will be gone. Just like when Liu Bang treated his brothers generously, but after he became emperor, the brothers went crazy drinking at the banquet, and even drew their swords and hacked at pillars. How unbecoming!

Fortunately, Liu Bang was already in power at that time. If he were still fighting with Xiang Yu, there was no guarantee that Xiang Yu would not overturn the table with these arrogant and powerful generals.

Yang Xingmi is also encountering this problem now. Because of his generous personality, he sees that the brothers in Crouching Tiger Camp are becoming more and more arrogant and careless in front of him. There are no rules. If this continues, there will be big trouble.

So he must use this opportunity to make a fuss and give Tao Ya a hard beating, for others to see, of course. This is not only for his own sake, but also for the sake of his brothers.

Seeing Yang Xingmi fall into silence, Liu Wei quickly gave Tao Ya a wink, indicating that he should surrender to Yang Xingmi and beg for mercy.

Tao Ya was not stupid and quickly kowtowed: "Brother, Old Tao knows he was wrong and will never drink again."

Yuan Xi also interjected: "For the sake of Tao Ya rescuing the general, the general will spare him this time."

Yang Xingmi had almost finished the Xunsi play, so he walked down the slope and sighed: "I planned to punish you severely, but all the brothers interceded for you. If I insist on enforcing the law, I am afraid of hurting the hearts of the brothers. In this case, then give it to me. Give you a chance. Death penalty can be avoided, but living crime cannot be forgiven. I won’t slap you, and I won’t fine you any money, and you don’t have any money either. I’ll fine you——"

Yang Xingmi paused deliberately.

Tao Ya's eyes widened.

"I will punish you to feed the horses. Zhang Xun will be responsible for your Xicheng camp. You will be demoted to a groom from tomorrow."

When Tao Ya heard this, her eyes almost popped out of her head, and she blurted out: "What? Groom! Brother, you'd better chop me down. This will be more uncomfortable than killing me."

Yang Xingmi said angrily: "What, you think you're too young? Then I'll demote you to a cook tomorrow and fetch water for the brothers to cook."

"Not small, not small, the groom should be the groom." Tao Ya quickly kowtowed in thanks and muttered: "It's better to serve a horse than a human."

Zhang Xun is the twelfth eldest among the thirteen brothers. He usually keeps a low profile. In this battle of Yangzhou, he was assigned to Tao Ya's Xicheng Camp as a deputy general, responsible for assisting Tao Ya. Zhang Xun is calm, unsmiling, and completely opposite to Tao Ya's temperament. Perhaps this is a complementary arrangement deliberately arranged by Yang Xingmi.

After Zhang Xun acted as the general, he immediately followed Yang Xingmi's instructions and set up white clothes, white armor and white flags, and the whole army observed a moment of silence. Yang Xingmi built a mourning hall under Yangzhou City and paid homage to Gao Pian from a distance. They saw Yang Xingmi in mourning clothes and crying loudly. The brothers had never seen him so sad.

In fact, the reason why Yang Xingmi did this was not only to improve military discipline, but also to show it to the high-ranking generals in the city. After Gao Pian's death, these people were forced to join Bi Shiduo's disciples, but many of them were not convinced and it was just a temporary measure.

Yang Xingmi did this to prove to them that you see, I, Yang Xingmi, am loyal to Gao Pian. I want to avenge him, and I am the heir to his career. In this way, when Yangzhou is conquered and Bi Shiduo and others are eliminated, who should succeed the Huainan Jiedushi?

Is that even a question?

Perhaps this is Yang Xingmi's ultimate purpose in playing this game.

Sure enough, Yang Xingmi's performance outside the city successfully moved the high-ranking generals in the city, and many people shed sad tears.

Yangzhou had been besieged for half a year at this time, and the two sides fought dozens of times. The city has long run out of ammunition and food, and even the grass has been eaten away. The people can only eat dirt to satisfy their hunger. Qin Yan's troops were so hungry that they openly set up large pots on the street to sell human flesh. They killed people, cooked the meat on the spot, and sold it freshly.

Yangzhou, a paradise on earth that was the most prosperous in the world during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, has now become a dark hell on earth.

It’s true that “when things prosper, people suffer; when things die, people suffer.”

History books truthfully record scenes of hell scenes in Yangzhou city that were like Shura fields.

The corpses of people who died of starvation were piled up like mountains, and their bones were everywhere. The soldiers of the Qin army with green eyes caught everyone they saw on the street. Many of them were couples, fathers and families, and were tied to doorposts. The butchers slaughtered and cooked meat on the spot, just like killing pigs and sheep.

When the war reached this point, no matter how slow the person was, they understood that it was only a matter of time before Yangzhou fell. Qin Yan and Bi Shiduo, who were trapped in the isolated city, were also desperate. However, Yang Xingmi outside the city did not know this. He saw that he could not capture it for a long time, so he sacrificed himself. The huge cost caused the thought of retreating.

This fierce battle depends on who can persist to the end. Whoever fails to persist first will lose.

Qin Yan was struggling to hold on by eating human flesh in the city, while Yang Xingmi was thinking about retreating outside the city. Which of the two could no longer hold on first?

The final battle has finally arrived.