From beggar to emperor: I am not Zhu Yuanzhang

In the blink of an eye, Yangzhou has been besieged for half a year, and the endurance of both sides has reached the limit. At this time, it depends on who can hold on for one more day.

Soon, Yang Xingmi's opportunity came.

One night, it was dark, windy and rainy. Looking at the heavy rain outside the tent, Yang Xingmi's eyes lit up and he suddenly had an idea.

He immediately summoned Tao Ya and Tian Bo and gave them a task. He ordered them to each lead [-] death squads to ambush under the city, and use the cover of the stormy night to forcefully climb over the city wall and make a surprise attack.

Tian Kai led his men to ambush outside the east city, while Tao Ya led his men to the west city, and both sides agreed to take action at the same time.

Late at night, it was windy and rainy, the sky was dark, and the garrison at the top of the city hid in the tower to take shelter from the rain. This was a good opportunity. The east and west sides immediately took action, and saw the death squads throwing iron hooks and fixing them on the top of the city, and then climbed up the city one by one along the ropes.

The suicide squad members climbed up the tower in the heavy rain, but no one from the defenders noticed. The first thing Tian Kai did after going up was to send people down to open the city gate, cut off the suspension bridge, and then hung a red lantern at the top of the city. This was the agreed success signal.

The camp outside the city discovered the signal and immediately reported it to Yang Xingmi.

Yang Xingmi immediately ordered a general attack. All troops attacked together and entered the city continuously. At this time, the defenders at the top of the city realized that the city gate was lost. Yang Xingmi's death squads were everywhere on the top of the city, chasing and killing the defenders.

At this point, everyone knew that the city could not be defended. Bi Shiduo's Hailing Army was the first to flee, followed closely by Qin Yan's Xuanzhou Army and Zheng Hanzhang's Gaoyou Army.

The defeated troops fled to the Jiedushi Mansion and reported to Bi Shiduo and others. Lao Bi and others were shocked. They did not expect that Yang Xingmi would launch a sneak attack on such a stormy night. It was too late to say anything now, so without further delay, they immediately packed up their gold and silver, left Kaihua Gate and fled to Dongtang.

After daybreak, the rain stopped, and Yang Xingmi rode into Yangzhou City accompanied by the generals.

After entering the city, the first thing he did was to claim to be the acting envoy of Huainan. Because Huainan's envoy Gao Pian was killed, the court had not yet appointed a new envoy. Gao Pian was Yang Xingmi's benefactor, so Yang Xingmi naturally had no choice but to do it. He became the acting envoy.

However, Yang Xingmi, the acting Jiedushi, was self-proclaimed and was not recognized by the court and did not have legitimacy. Therefore, his troubles had just begun.

After Gao Pian died, everyone naturally wanted to take possession of the fat piece of Huainan Jieduzhi, and the game between the imperial court and various warlords in the Huainan area was very fierce.

If Yang Xingmi wants to get this piece of fat, he must take advantage first, turn raw rice into cooked rice, and use fait accompli to force the court to recognize his status.

Yang Xingmi's approach was to pay high-profile sacrifices to the murdered Gao Pian. After entering the city, he immediately sent people to find the remains of Gao Pian's family and bury them grandly.

In addition, in order to win over the hearts of Gao Pian's remnants, he ordered the arrest of several Gao Pian's generals who had rebelled and defected to Qin Yan. He accused them of being unfaithful and unjust, and killed the lord Gao Pian. He dragged them out and rewarded each of them with a knife.

In short, at this time, Yang Xingmi tried his best to dress himself up as Gao Pian's most loyal subordinate, flaunting his unwavering loyalty to Gao Pian.

This move indeed moved many of Gao Pian's old subordinates, and everyone was willing to regard Yang Xingmi as the master of Huainan. This was his brilliance.

After the smoke of the war cleared, only a few hundred households were left in Yangzhou, a first-tier city in the Tang Dynasty. Most of them were hungry and had no one. That’s it.

The dead people were sleeping in the city, the ruins were in ruins, it was like hell, and the whole city looked like Syria after bombing.

Seeing such a miserable situation, Yang Xingmi felt that it was difficult to hold on to Yangzhou. He had to eat or drink. It was boring to guard a ruins. Ever since, Yang Xingmi had the idea of ​​​​retreating.

However, Yang Xingmi would not have thought that he might not be able to leave. A mysterious army was rapidly advancing towards Yangzhou.

On the dusty official road, large groups of cavalry roared past, and the dust raised by the horses' hooves covered the sky and the sun.

The word "Qin" embroidered on the military flag was particularly eye-catching. The large group of people headed straight towards Yangzhou. A group of crows perched on the branches were frightened and flew up and hovered at low altitude...

Could it be that Qin Yan, the invincible Xiaoqiang, has made a comeback?

No, this Qin is not that Qin, and the visitor is not Qin Yan, but Qin Zongheng, who fled from the Central Plains to commit crimes. His elder brother was Qin Zongquan, the remnant of Huang Chao and the leader of the warlord who occupied Caizhou (now Runan, Henan).

This Qin Zongquan was a notorious villain in the history of the late Tang Dynasty. He was originally a general under Huang Chao and was Huang Chao's capable general.

After Huang Chao failed, he led his troops and fled to Caizhou. He ravaged the area of ​​Caizhou and Chenzhou (now Huaiyang, Henan) for a long time, attracting many Tang troops to encircle and suppress them.

In order to open up a new battlefield and get out of trouble, Qin Zongquan specially sent his most trusted younger brother Qin Zongheng to lead troops to fight in Huainan, trying to capture Yangzhou to prepare a place for his eldest brother's "strategic transfer".

After winter, the Qin army arrived outside the city and occupied the Shugang camp abandoned by Yang Xingmi. A large amount of grain and grass that had not been transported into the city fell into the hands of the Qin army.

As soon as Yang Xingmi gained a foothold in the city, he was caught off guard by Qin Zongheng, a fierce bandit from the Central Plains.

What's even more terrible is that a large amount of grain and grass fell into Qin Zongheng's hands, and the famine in Yangzhou City was not over yet. What to do.

Yang Xingmi seemed to feel the malice coming from Qin Zongheng. This Qin Zongheng was probably more difficult to deal with than Bi Shiduo and his gang.

Yang Xingmi urgently ordered martial law in Yangzhou. In just a few days, he changed from an attacker to a defender. This role change was too fast.

At this time, Bi Shiduo, Qin Yan, and Zheng Hanzhang, who had fled to Dongtang for refuge, heard the news of Qin Zongheng's arrival, and surrounded Yangzhou as soon as they arrived. It seems that they came for Yang Xingmi, which is great.

These three people imagined that they could rely on Qin Zongheng to help them kill Yang Xingmi, take revenge, sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight, and finally go out to pick peaches. This is a good idea, just don’t use it next time.

But they were serious and immediately ran to Shugang to ask Qin Zongheng to discuss cooperation.

Qin Zongheng met these three people in the Shugang camp. As soon as they met, they flattered him fiercely, touted the reputation of Qin Zongheng's brother, and hoped that he could achieve greater success in Yangzhou.

The flattery was very useful to Qin Zongheng. He laughed and said, "Thank you, three generals. I heard that you fought with Yang Xingmi for half a year and suffered losses. It must be that Yang Xingmi is difficult to deal with."

Qin Yan said: "This Yang Xingmi is cunning and changeable. We were accidentally attacked by him. He actually launched the attack on a rainy night. We were unprepared and suffered a loss."

Qin Zongheng snorted: "Little tricks, these are all leftover from our brothers' tricks. We made our fortune by sneak attacks. I want to see how capable Yang Xingmi is."

Qin Zongheng's words made the three of them secretly happy. They finally dragged you into the water. Just wait and see the good show.

Qin Zongheng hosted a banquet for the three of them. After discussion, the three decided to form an alliance with Qin Zongheng and jointly besiege Yangzhou. This was very bad news for Yang Xingmi.