Chapter 794 Let’s do it tonight!
A month ago, the Coordination Office noticed this Chen Shangye and originally wanted to arrest him directly. However, after some clues were mutually confirmed, the Coordination Office believed that they could find the Jiang Kuang lurking inside the Fengwu Army through Chen Shangye...

After confirming this idea, the Coordination Office finally decided to play the long game and try to follow the clues to use Chen Shangye and dig out Jiang Kuang!
After clarifying this idea, the Coordination Office began to further improve the details of the plan. Through some clues, the Coordination Office learned that Chen Shangye bought a house next to the Chen Mansion, and wanted to flatten the old house and build several large tiled houses. Therefore, the Coordination Office gave this task to Zhang Chengzhe.

Ask Zhang Chengzhe to disguise himself as a bricklayer and sneak into Chen's house to look for clues related to Jiang Kuang!

It has been five days since Zhang Chengzhe entered the Chen Mansion. Although he has not found any information related to Jiang Kuang during these five days, he has also gained some information. For example, he can be sure that the newly built large tiled houses by Chen Shangye are most likely related to the Supervisory Office!
The evidence is that this guy Chen Shangye could actually afford eight hundred taels of silver to buy the house next to the Chen Mansion!

Chen Shangye had been in the officialdom of Youyan for decades and had made a lot of money and land. However, when he was tried, all his illegal gains were confiscated and he was also fined one thousand taels of silver.

In addition, he was able to be sentenced to three years and was released from prison a year early, as his family spent a lot of money, so his family assets had been emptied out long ago. According to the investigation of the Coordination Office, Chen Shangye now only has this old house and hundreds of acres of ancestral land outside Yijing City...
Before he hooked up with the Supervisory Office, Chen Shangye lived a very tight life. His only source of income was the rent from his hundred acres of ancestral land. He could not even do routine repairs on the old house, and had to dismiss the old servants who had served him for decades. In order to supplement the family income, his wife Yang even sold her jewelry.

Therefore, Zhang Chengzhe really couldn't understand why he would buy someone else's house when he was so short of money.
Under the governance of the Fengwu Army, Yijing has been thriving in recent years. In this chaotic world, there is even a shadow of prosperity. With good economic development, housing prices will naturally rise. The housing prices in Yijing as a whole are generally 30% to 50% higher than before.

Therefore, after learning that Chen Shangye was interested in purchasing his house, the original owner asked for a high price of one thousand taels of silver. After some bargaining, it was finally sold for eight hundred taels of silver!

After buying the house, demolishing it and rebuilding it was quite a project. The labor and material costs would cost at least one or two hundred taels of silver. If you add it all up, it would definitely be more than one thousand taels of silver!

In this era when overseas silver had not yet poured into the Great Zhou on a large scale, causing inflation, the purchasing power of silver was still very strong. The fiscal surplus that the province of Youyan alone paid to the central government every quarter was only 20,000 to 30,000 taels of silver.

It would not be a problem for Chen Shangye to take out this one thousand taels of silver when his property was not confiscated. But now Zhang Chengzhe absolutely does not believe that Chen Shangye is still able to take out such a huge sum of money...

Since Chen Shangye can't afford the money, who can?

There is only one answer and that is - the Supervisory Department!

No one is rich these days. The Fengwu Army is in financial difficulty, and the Luoan court is also in financial constraints. The financial constraints mean that the funds for the activities of the Supervisory Office are limited. In addition, the Supervisory Office is too big and has too many places to spend money. Therefore, even though the Fengwu Army is the main infiltration direction of the Coordination Office, they will not get much silver!

According to the information from the Coordination Office, the Luoan court can provide the Fengwu Army with funds for its secret activities every year, which is about three thousand taels of silver, and the rest needs to be raised by themselves!

Therefore, from this point of view, the Supervisory Office was able to use one-third of its annual operating funds to buy this house and renovate it. The purpose was definitely not ordinary, and it might be related to this elusive Jiang Kuang!
Thinking of this, Zhang Chengzhe hesitated for a moment, and after a moment he saw that other craftsmen around him were doing their own work and no one paid attention to his own, so he pretended to be convenient to take over and left his work station. When he was out of everyone’s sight, Zhang Chengzhe quietly walked towards the archway...

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Huainan, Kangyin

Zhang Meng and Ma Zhongjun stood side by side on the watchtower, paying close attention to the siege situation at the moment. At this time, under the city of Kangyin, tens of thousands of Fengwu Army soldiers from the Fourth Army and the First Division were carrying ladders and pushing battering rams, launching a fierce attack under the cover of artillery fire in the face of enemy arrows and battering rams.

Looking at the stalemate in front of them, Zhang Meng and Ma Zhongjun both looked very solemn. After an incense stick of time, seeing the soldiers of the Fengwu Army being driven down by the enemy, Zhang Meng couldn't help but sighed with some regret, then looked at Ma Zhongjun beside him and said:

"General Ma, no wonder the bastard Xu Zhaojie sent Zhao Jiye to guard Kangyin. This guy is really capable!"

"Besides, Kangyin is one of the most fortified cities in Huainan. In the short term, our army's artillery will not have much effect on damaging the city!"

Ma Zhongjun nodded slightly and said:
"Master Zhang, you are right. Kangyin is not an easy bone to chew. Back then, Xu Zhaojie also fought hard here for several months before he barely took over Kangyin!"

"It is unlikely that you can quickly capture Kangyin with only the tens of thousands of troops from your Fourth Army and my First Division!"

The First Division and the Fourth Army that captured Shunde a few days ago completed their reunion under the city of Kangyin. After the reunion, according to the rules of the Fengwu Army, Zhang Meng should serve as the commander-in-chief. However, Zhang Meng also knew that although he actually controlled the Fourth Army, he was still a deputy commander in name...

As the ace main force of the Fengwu Army, the First Division has a special status in the Fengwu Army. What's more, this time the First Division has the largest number of troops and is responsible for the main attack under the instruction of the General Staff. So after seeing that Ma Zhongjun respected him very much, he generously gave up the position of commander-in-chief.

After listening to Ma Zhongjun's words, Zhang Meng did not speak but looked at Ma Zhongjun quietly. After the General Staff established the goal of taking down Kangyin this time.

In addition to striving for the main attack for the Fourth Army, Zhang Meng, as a participating general, also raised his own doubts about the combat objectives to the General Staff!

Zhang Meng's doubt is that this time, with insufficient logistical supplies and only more than half a month of combat time, the General Staff formulated a combat goal that included taking over half of Huainan, including Kangyin. Was there any suspicion of being too ambitious and blindly arrogant?
In Zhang Meng's opinion, in this battle, the Fengwu Army mobilized a total of more than 50,000 troops from the First Division and the Fourth Army. It would not be difficult for such a large number of troops to capture other places north of Nanjiang. However, Kangyin was a strong city. Not only did it have complete fortifications, but the city walls were also tall, thick and very strong.

Facing such a strong city, the firearms advantage that Fengwu Army is proud of will be greatly offset, and it is simply unrealistic to capture this city in the short term! In response to Zhang Meng's doubts, the General Staff gave a response that this was not something Zhang Meng should consider. As the deputy commander of the Fourth Army, his main responsibility now was to complete the tasks assigned by the General Staff...

The General Staff's statement did not satisfy Zhang Meng. As the deputy commander of the Fourth Army, he directly wrote a letter to Ye Mingsheng, explaining his thoughts and doubts. Seeing Zhang Meng's persistence, although for confidentiality reasons, Ye Mingsheng did not directly tell Zhang Meng the real deployment, but he also hinted to him.

Although he did not get the exact answer, Zhang Meng, who had received the hint, also realized something, so he did not persist, but faithfully carried out the battle plan, supporting and assisting the First Division, which was the main attacking force!
Now, seeing that there has been no results after several days of continuous attacks, Zhang Meng feels that it is time to use his killer move!

Although he didn't know what the real killer move was, Zhang Meng knew that Ma Zhongjun, as the main attacker, must know the specific details!
Feeling Zhang Meng's gaze, Ma Zhongjun also felt that it was time to confess. He immediately said to Zhang Meng in a low voice:

"Zhang Shiyu, the deputy general of Kangyin City, agreed to the recruitment of the General Coordination Office three months ago and promised to surrender the city when our army launched an attack on Kangyin!"

As soon as these words came out, a gleam of light flashed through Zhang Meng’s eyes. After getting Ye Mingsheng’s hint, he immediately realized that the people in the General Staff had just formulated such a crazy plan to capture Kangyin in half a month. Most likely, there was an insider in Kangyin City. However, now that he learned that the insider was actually a high-ranking official like the deputy general, he was somewhat surprised...
After a moment of silence, Zhang Meng said in a deep voice:
"Since General Ma has such a plan, then let's use this plan to quickly open the city gate. If we force an attack now, the casualties will be huge!"

Hearing Zhang Meng say this, Ma Zhongjun sighed slightly and said:

"Commander Zhang, don't worry. Just listen to me. According to the plan, our army was going to attack Kangyin. Zhang Shiyu would immediately kill the general of Kangyin and then open the city gates to surrender. But no one expected that Xu Zhaojie, the bastard, would send Zhao Jiye here at the last minute!"

"As soon as Zhao Jiye arrived, he strengthened the control over the city, which added a lot of difficulties to Zhang Shiyu's plan to surrender the city. We only have one chance. If we miss, our battle plan will fail. So we can only test the waters with a strong attack first to see if we can make Zhao Jiye relax his vigilance!"

After getting this answer, Zhang Meng nodded silently and understood the confusion in Ma Zhongjun's heart.

Just when the atmosphere was somewhat silent, a messenger came over in a panic and reported to Zhang Meng:

“Commander-in-chief, something bad has happened! Hou Zhen from Jingchu led 30,000 troops to attack our rear. The enemy has already captured Zhucheng…”

Upon hearing the news, not only Zhang Meng's face changed, but Ma Zhongjun also showed a look of surprise on his face.

"What is going on?" Zhang Meng asked the messenger anxiously:
In response to Zhang Meng's question, the messenger tried his best to explain:
"I am not very clear about the specific situation, sir. I only know that Zhucheng in the rear has been captured by Hou Zhen, and he is leading his troops to Kangyin!"

Zhang Meng looked very angry after hearing this. After conquering Zhucheng, he regarded this city as his logistical hub and stored a lot of food and supplies in it. Besides, he felt that Zhucheng was a safe area, so he did not leave more soldiers in Zhucheng, but only deployed more than a thousand people there.

He never expected that Jingchu would send out 30,000 troops. Now that Zhucheng was captured by the Chu army, his Fourth Army not only faced the risk of having its retreat cut off, but also faced the risk of food and other supplies being depleted. Thinking of this, Zhang Meng said angrily:
"Hou Zhen, you bastard, I will teach you a lesson when I return to Anqing!"

Listening to Zhang Meng's words, Ma Zhongjun also knew that Zhucheng was the logistics hub of the Fourth Army. Now that it was captured by the Chu Army, the Fourth Army was facing the risk of running out of ammunition and food. As a friendly army, Ma Zhongjun said without thinking too much:

“Commander Zhang, my First Division still has plenty of food and other supplies. I’ll have my men deliver them to you later…”

Ma Zhongjun's words also warmed Zhang Meng's heart. After the fall of Zhucheng, his Fourth Army had encountered difficulties in logistics, so he did not say anything polite to Ma Zhongjun and said directly:
"Thank you, General Ma! I appreciate your kindness. I will remember this favor!"

Ma Zhongjun waved his hand and said:

"Commander Zhang, you are too kind. Our divisions are both under the command of the Marshal and we are of the same blood. We should share the joys and sorrows. If my First Division was in this situation today, I believe that Commander Zhang would also lend a helping hand!"

"That's nature! That's nature!"

After discussing the food supplies, the two focused their attention on the current situation. After thinking for a while, Ma Zhongjun said:

"Commander Zhang, our army is out of time now. I want to take action tonight!"

After hearing Ma Zhongjun's thoughts, Zhang Meng also understood what Ma Zhongjun meant. If Hou Zhen hadn't happened, the Fengwu Army could have waited patiently for a few days. But now Hou Zhen led 30,000 Chu troops to arrive. If the Fengwu Army didn't take action, they might not be able to achieve their set combat objectives!

After thinking for a while, Zhang Meng nodded heavily and said:
"General Ma, I agree with your idea. Let's start tonight..."

(End of this chapter)