Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 221: Change with the times

After Chen Zhengdu left, the city defense situation took a sharp turn for the worse in just one day.

The morale of Deng Ren's soldiers was already low, and with Fang Yong's siege on three sides, the offensive was fierce. Within a day, many soldiers were killed or wounded, and the city walls were climbed up by the Huaiyin army many times.

Deng Ren was at the end of his rope. He had no way of making up for the gap in hard power by any means. He could only hope that Yu Kahe Khan could successfully seize the enemy's food supplies.

Fang Yong outside the city was very happy at this time.

He could clearly sense today that the soldiers defending the city were not as strong or as morale-conscious as before.

Fang Yong ordered his men to shoot a large number of letters of surrender into the city, persuading the soldiers and officers defending the city to surrender.

Li Ni in the city was also taking action, calling on the wealthy families in the city to join the Huaiyin Army.

The first to respond were the underworld gangs.

These people are simply the gangsters of Beijing. They have some basic martial arts skills, fight for territory, collect protection fees, or use other unorthodox methods. For example, Li San from the Swallow Sect mentioned earlier made his fortune by stealing...

However, although they are in the gray area of society, when it comes to national justice, they are the first to respond.

Under the cover of night, many soldiers guarding the city took turns. Whenever someone was left alone, some gangsters from the dark would appear and assassinate him.

Overnight, many soldiers defending the city were assassinated. The body of one soldier was even hung at the gate of Zhengyang Gate, with a note stuck on his forehead that read "Swallow Gate Li San killed the traitor pig dog here".

The losses from an assassination of this scale are not great, and the life and death of dozens of soldiers will not have any impact at all.

However, it was extremely insulting, and many soldiers felt ashamed to look at the words "traitor and pig dog" on it.

Deng Ren was furious and sent people to capture Li San, but the other party had already escaped with his family.

The morale of the soldiers was at its lowest point, and the defense was even weaker. There were even several times when they were almost breached by the Huaiyin Army. In the end, they managed to hold on by relying on the sheer volume of lives.

Under the cover of night, Deng Ren remained silent for a long time.

"It's been two days, why is there still no movement from the Khan..."

At that time, Sun Shaozu finished a day's defense of the city, returned home, and sat down limply.

Originally he was a spoiled child who knew nothing about city defense and all he did all day was play with women.

But now, in order to survive, he can even barely command the city defense battle. It must be said that abilities are acquired through training.

Looking back at today's situation, even someone like Sun Shaozu who is not experienced in warfare can see that the city will be captured in the next one or two days.

Not tomorrow,

It’s the day after tomorrow.

There is no news from the grassland people. Deng Ren only told them to hold on and that there will be a turning point soon. I don’t know what this turning point will be...

Suddenly, Sun Shaozu happened to see the envelope on his desk.

After thinking about it, this was the letter that Chen Zhengdu sent to Deng Ren.

He was going to hand it over to Deng Ren, but because the attacks of the Huaiyin bandits were too fierce in the past few days, he forgot to hand it over.

Sun Shaozu stood up, picked up the envelope, and prepared to hand it to Deng Ren.

But after taking two steps, he thought again, Chen Zheng always walked with the grassland people, so could the so-called "turning point" mentioned in the letter be?

Under normal circumstances, Sun Shaozu would definitely not open the letter casually.

But now the situation is critical, and life and death are at stake. Sun Shaozu is very concerned about the so-called "turning point" that Deng Ren mentioned, as it concerns his life and death.

So in this situation, Sun Shaozu thought for a moment and decided to open it and have a look.

Sun Shaozu carefully used a knife to break the sealing wax so that he could stick it back together later.

I opened the envelope and took out the letter, only a short note.

It says:

"Kah Khan is dead. Brother Deng can either surrender or retreat back to the grassland..."

The envelope fell to the ground.

Sun Huaiyi was holding a bright red branding iron.

"Tell me, who told you to change the gunpowder ratio? Was it the Huaiyin thief?"

The man was dying. He raised half of his eyelids and looked at Sun Huaiyi with contempt.

Just one glance and Sun Huaiyi's defense was instantly broken.

"I told you not to say anything, so that you can be tough!"

Sun Huaiyi raised the branding iron and with a ferocious look on his face, he branded the man's lower body!
Suddenly, the door was kicked open.

When Sun Shaozu saw Sun Huaiyi's move, he immediately took a run-up and kicked Sun Huaiyi down with a flying kick.

The branding iron turned twice in the air and landed directly on Sun Huaiyi's belly.

"Ahhhh! Shaozu, you're crazy!"

Sun Huaiyi screamed.

Sun Shaozu quickly took away the branding iron and helped Sun Huaiyi up.

Sun Huaiyi cursed Sun Shaozu while his heart was beating uncontrollably due to the severe pain from his injuries.

"Medicine, hurry up and get the medicine, it hurts so much!"

However, Sun Shaozu did not bother to pay attention to Sun Huaiyi's injuries. He hurriedly handed the envelope and note to Sun Huaiyi and told Sun Huaiyi the reason of the incident.

Sun Huaiyi didn't care at first, but when Sun Shaozu finished speaking, his face changed instantly!
He quickly took the note, and in the face of such a serious matter, his burns didn't hurt that much.

"What! This... Shaozu, what should we do now?"

Sun Huaiyi asked anxiously.

Sun Shaozu looked at Sun Huaiyi, put his hands behind his back, took two steps, and said in a high-sounding manner:
"Brother, Deng Ren is a traitor to his country and his people. He is willing to be a running dog of the Tartars. My Sun family has received the grace of the country for generations and has the blood of the Chinese nation. How can we associate with such people?"

Sun Huaiyi also understood after hearing this and said:
"The Huaiyin Army is a mighty army, a mighty army under heaven! Lord Yonghuai is wise and brave, benevolent and virtuous. This time he has raised an army to serve the king, and he is an example to the world. My two brothers should join him!"

Sun Shaozu smiled and said:
"Great! What you said is exactly what I was thinking!"

The two of them looked at the man who was beaten to death.

Before, many people saw Sun Huaiyi and his men taking him away, but it was not easy to silence them in this situation.

I can only treat him as my real father and take good care of him.

Fortunately, the other party only suffered some minor injuries and can be healed with careful rest.

At night, the offensive of the Huaiyin army outside did not slow down much.

The artillery fire continued to roar.

Deng Ren was directing very tiredly.

It was not until the fifth watch that the Huaiyin army's offensive eased slightly.

Sun Shaozu came up and said to Deng Ren:
"It is now the time of dawn and dusk, and the Huaiyin army's offensive has slowed down a bit. General, you have been working hard for many days, you can take a break for a while, Shaozu will take over the command."

Deng Ren opened his eyes with bloodshot eyes and didn't think much about it.

He was indeed extremely tired, so he went back to rest for a while.

Deng Ren did not go home, but stayed in the attic on the city wall. He sat down on a chair, and the drowsiness from lack of rest for many days swept over his body, and he soon fell asleep.

Seeing this, Sun Shaozu and Sun Huaiyi took their trusted men to guard the city wall, drove away the people around them, and walked into the room. They saw Deng Ren lying on a chair to rest. The two men first stepped forward and untied the talisman on Deng Ren's waist, then took a hemp rope and tied it around the chair until Deng Ren was tied up tightly.

Suddenly, Deng Ren was awakened from his sleep. He looked at the scene and said in shock:

"How dare you repeat yourself!"

(End of this chapter)