Chapter 611 Cut off one of his arms!
Dong Cheng had never met Ye Mingsheng, but before leading his troops to the battle, Xu Zhaojie specially had someone draw a portrait of Ye Mingsheng for him so that he would know who he was going to kill·························

Although he had seen the portrait, Dong Cheng could only vaguely see a figure on the city wall surrounded and protected by a crowd of people as they were several miles away. He could not see Ye Mingsheng's voice or appearance. Nevertheless, through the deafening cheers and shouts of the Fengwu Army in the city, Dong Cheng knew who had appeared!

As the saying goes, a person's reputation is like a tree's shadow. Although he kept saying that he would cut off Ye Mingsheng's head and kick it like a ball, when the rumored Ye Mingsheng really appeared in front of him, Dong Cheng still felt a little nervous. He swallowed his saliva to hide his inner emotions, and he shouted again:
“Brothers! Ye Mingsheng is right in front of us…”

Dong Cheng's words came to an abrupt halt when he heard deafening shouts of killing behind him that echoed through the fields. Dong Cheng turned his head in disbelief. In his field of vision, tens of thousands of Fengwu Army soldiers were rushing towards him from all directions.

"What's going on? Didn't the Marquis say that the Fengwu Army only had two to three thousand men in Zhuo County? Where did so many people come from?"

Dong Cheng roared madly with despair on his face. He didn't understand why he, who was supposed to be a hunter, ended up being the prey.

Seeing that their rear was surrounded, the soldiers of the Anqing army who were attacking Zhuo County became at a loss. At this time, Dong Cheng, under the persuasion of his subordinates, gradually regained a bit of rationality and planned to lead his troops to break out. However, in order to capture Zhuo County as soon as possible, he had already put almost all of his troops into the siege.

If he wanted to withdraw now, he simply couldn’t afford to organize a breakout. He could only watch as the Fengwu Army’s encirclement became tighter and tighter. His own soldiers were attacked from all sides, and were killed one by one by the Fengwu Army’s firearms like cutting wheat. Dong Cheng was in great pain and wished he was dead...
As a famous general, Xu Zhaojie, the Marquis of Zhenyuan, is really good at leading troops. Moreover, the 5,000 elite Anqing troops who carried out the raid were carefully selected by him. They were well-equipped and had good combat effectiveness. Although they were in a difficult situation at the moment, these Anqing troops still fought bravely, trying to fight to the end with the Fengwu Army, which brought a lot of trouble to the Fengwu Army.

However, no matter how well-trained the soldiers were, they were still human beings after all, and human beings would have fear. After holding out for an incense stick of time, as the first person was frightened by the fear of death, he dropped his weapon and knelt down to beg for mercy, the Anqing army, which had been resisting stubbornly, began to surrender.

Half an hour later, General Zhang Meng of the Seventh Division entered Zhuo County, walked up to Ye Mingsheng, knelt on one knee and said:
"I am late! Please punish me, Marshal!"

Looking at the brave general of the Fengwu Army whom he had promoted, Ye Mingsheng nodded with a smile and said:
"It doesn't matter! How's the battle going?"

Facing Ye Mingsheng's question, Zhang Meng said without hesitation:
"Our army annihilated more than 3,000 enemies and captured 1,586 enemy soldiers including General Dong Cheng!"

"You captured the enemy general?" Ye Mingsheng asked with interest:
Under Ye Mingsheng's gaze, Zhang Meng nodded proudly and said:
"This enemy general named Dong Cheng was determined to fight to the death and refused to surrender. I personally knocked him to the ground and captured him alive!"

Upon hearing this, Ye Mingsheng ordered:
"Bring him up to me!"

"Yes!"

At Ye Mingsheng's command, a bruised and battered Anqing general was brought in front of Ye Mingsheng. This man was none other than Dong Cheng, who had dreamed of killing Ye Mingsheng for promotion and wealth a few hours ago...

At this moment, Dong Cheng was in tatters, his armor and military uniform were covered with scars. What was even more miserable was that several of his teeth seemed to have been knocked out. He did not have the spirited spirit he had just had in Zhuo County at all. He looked like a stray dog!
Although he looked miserable, it had to be said that Dong Cheng was still very tough. Looking at Ye Mingsheng who was high and mighty in front of him, he turned his head away and snorted coldly.

Ye Mingsheng had expected Dong Cheng to behave like this. He knew that with Xu Zhaojie's methods, the person who carried out this raid must be absolutely loyal to him and fearless. Therefore, ordinary threats would be useless to him. So Ye Mingsheng lost interest in interrogating him and turned to look at Wang Xuecheng beside him and said:
"I heard that you guys in the Coordination Office have a lot of tricks up your sleeve. Are you sure you can pry open his mouth?"

In response to Ye Mingsheng's question, Wang Xuecheng looked Dong Cheng up and down, and said to Ye Mingsheng very reservedly:
"Three days!"

Seeing that he was so confident, Ye Mingsheng nodded and said:
"He's yours! I'll be waiting for your good news!"

"I will definitely not let the Marshal down!" Wang Xuecheng said confidently:
·····························
·····························
At the same time that Dong Cheng's troops were annihilated by the Fengwu Army under the city of Zhuo County, at Xiaohe Mountain in southern Hebei and Henan,

Xu Zhaojie was carefully observing the situation on the sand table in front of him, while opposite him his deputy general Liu Chaohu was replacing the small flags on the sand table in a timely manner based on the intelligence summarized from the front line.

In the past few days, although there was no major battle between the Anqing Army occupying Xiaohe Mountain and the Third Division of the Fengwu Army entrenched in Fengqiu City, both sides behaved very restrainedly, but fights involving hundreds of people occurred from time to time. Both sides won and lost, but because the Third Division was mostly cavalry who could come and go freely and was equipped with a lot of firearms, the Third Division had the upper hand overall.

Just as Xu Zhaojie was enjoying the rare quiet time of the day, hurried footsteps were heard outside the tent. The next second, a messenger hurriedly came in and reported to Xu Zhaojie:
"General, news came from Licheng that Xu Kai and others were killed by the Qi army!" Xu Zhaojie was stunned at first, then his face showed anger, but he still said calmly:
"Is this true?"

The messenger nodded and said:
"It's absolutely true. It is said that many people in Licheng saw Xu Kai being shot through the throat by an arrow..."

Before the messenger had finished speaking, Xu Zhaojie knocked over the water cup on the table with his fist, closed his eyes and growled:
"Get out! Get out of here!"

Everyone knew Xu Zhaojie's brutal temper. Feeling Xu Zhaojie's anger at this moment, everyone in the tent immediately scattered like birds and beasts, not daring to delay any longer, fearing that they would suffer Xu Zhaojie's anger in the next second!
As he was the only one left in the tent, Xu Zhaojie sat down weakly on the chair, his mind filled with the voice and appearance of his cousin Xu Kai.

Although they are only cousins, because they grew up together, the relationship between Xu Zhaojie and Xu Kai can be said to be closer than that of real brothers. In the original plan of the Xu family elders, Xu Zhaojie, as a military general, would inherit the family title and shoulder the family's glory, while Xu Kai, who was not very strong, chose to learn strategies from a literary perspective to assist Xu Zhaojie.

It has to be said that the elders of the Xu family are very forward-looking. Since Xu Zhaojie became the Marquis of Zhenyuan, the two brothers have been working together very well, one with literary and one with martial arts skills. Although they have suffered a lot of setbacks under Ye Mingsheng's calculations, they have also tried their best to ensure that the Xu family will not fall, allowing the Xu family to retain the hope of re-emergence.

During Xu Zhaojie's entry into Anqing and the surprise attack, the world only saw Xu Zhaojie's brilliant strategy on the battlefield, as well as his ability to plan and win battles thousands of miles away. However, few people knew that Xu Kai, who stood behind the scenes and was in charge of all the financial and logistics of the Anqing Army, was able to give full play to his military talents on the front line because of Xu Kai's painstaking work...

It is precisely because Xu Kai is very important in the Anqing military system that Xu Zhaojie did not want him to go to Licheng for a secret meeting with Cao Changping, for fear of some unexpected situation. However, the threat from the Fengwu Army is too great. Once the Fengwu Army successfully captures Hebei and Henan, Anqing will be exposed to the blade of the Fengwu Army, and Ye Mingsheng can attack whenever he wants.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Anqing is now the "egg" of the Anqing Army under Xu Zhaojie. In the previous battles in the Huainan area, despite the outstanding command of Xu Zhaojie on the front battlefield, Feng Keqin's Huai Army was defeated time and time again and could only passively take the beating. However, Feng Keqin had served as the governor of Huainan for many years after all. Although Huainan did not develop much under his rule, the administration was relatively clean.

In addition, Huainan was originally a wealthy province of the Great Zhou Dynasty, so although the people suffered some oppression and exploitation, they were able to survive. Therefore, Feng Keqin still had a good reputation among the people and in official circles, and the people also supported his rule.

Therefore, although he could not defeat Xu Zhaojie on the front battlefield, Feng Keqin still relied on the reputation and money he had accumulated over the years to maintain his base, and continued to call on the people of Huainan under Xu Zhaojie's rule to stand up and resist Xu Zhaojie's rule.

And Ye Mingsheng, who was far away in Yijing, was constantly fanning the flames and holding Xu Zhaojie back, which led to Xu Zhaojie's battle in Huainan. The supply to the Anqing Army in Bozhou, Zhucheng and other places he occupied was very limited, and the pressure of logistics supply was very high. Even the soldiers could only be forcibly conscripted, which did not achieve the effect of fighting to support the war as Xu Zhaojie expected································

Faced with this situation, Xu Zhaojie had no good solution but to increase his demands on Anqing for money, food, and manpower to support the continuation of the war in Huainan, hoping to quickly defeat Feng Keqin on the battlefield and end the war.

Therefore, once Anqing, the vital point, was captured, without the support of money, food and manpower, Xu Zhaojie's entire situation would collapse completely. Precisely because Anqing was so important, even at the most difficult time of the war, Xu Zhaojie still left 15,000 soldiers in Anqing in case of emergency.

With these 15,000 soldiers stationed there, Xu Zhaojie was very confident that as long as the Henan Army and the Qi Army did not join forces, the Anqing Army could hold out until he could lead his troops to support them, no matter which of the two attacked. But once the opponent became the Fengwu Army, 15,000 people would be far from enough. According to Xu Zhaojie's calculations, at least 30,000 people would be needed to stop the Fengwu Army from moving south.

However, the total number of Anqing troops was no more than 70,000. Of the 30,000 troops left in Anqing, excluding those who stayed in the rear to maintain law and order and protect the logistics supply lines, there were only 30,000 troops who could be used on the front line. This amount of manpower was not enough to capture Feng Keqin, and it would be very difficult even to face Feng Keqin's counterattack.

For this dilemma, Xu Zhaojie thought of conscription. However, Anqing had already reached its limit. The soldiers in Huainan were influenced by Feng Keqin and were not willing to join the Anqing Army. There were even many uprisings. Coupled with a series of recent wars, the finances of the Anqing Army were about to reach a critical point of collapse...

Therefore, under the current circumstances, directly bordering the Fengwu Army is a burden that Xu Zhaojie cannot bear, so Xu Zhaojie carefully planned an operation to use the elite troops of Qi and Lu to raid Zhuo County. He believed that everyone's attention, including Ye Mingsheng, was now focused on the war in Hebei and Henan, so he led tens of thousands of Anqing troops to Hebei and Henan, and brought a message to Ye Mingsheng, saying that he wanted to compete with Ye Mingsheng for the Central Plains, and he was ready to have a decisive battle with Ye Mingsheng in Hebei and Henan.

But in fact, all his actions on the battlefield in Hebei and Henan were feints, ensuring that all the attention of Ye Mingsheng and the Fengwu Army was firmly attracted to the battlefield in Hebei and Henan, hoping that Ye Mingsheng would not feel the danger from around him, thus creating the best opportunity for Dong Cheng's surprise attack.

The necessary condition for Dong Cheng's surprise attack is the cooperation of Qi and Lu, which requires a personal dialogue with Cao Changping and obtaining Cao Changping's approval. In order to express respect for Cao Changping, the person sent to Licheng must not only be someone Xu Zhaojie trusts, but also an important figure in the Anqing army who can cope with the complicated situation in Licheng. So Xu Zhaojie thought about it and decided to send his most trusted cousin Xu Kai.

And Xu Kai did not disappoint Xu Zhaojie. With his arguments and explanation of the pros and cons, he successfully made Cao Changping deeply wary of Ye Mingsheng, prompting Cao Changping to quietly cooperate with Xu Zhaojie's plan and provide logistical supplies for Dong Cheng's surprise attack.

Originally everything was going as planned. Xu Zhaojie was deeply inspired by Xu Kai's work achievements. He was preparing to wait for him to come back to celebrate, but he didn't expect to hear such tragic news. Xu Kai's death was not only a deep emotional blow to Xu Zhaojie, but also cut off Xu Zhaojie's arm in his career...
(End of this chapter)