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Chapter 24 Digging Your Own Grave

After understanding the reason for the chaos in the Wulian militia camp late at night, he also learned that Lu Ji, the great Wulian tyrant who firmly supported him, was assassinated late at night. Su Ding, who had a bad temper, immediately cursed. Then when it was dawn, Su Ding called Mo Zhu and several other Wulian tyrants to the front and scolded them in person.

"Baoshi! idiots! What do you do for? He could even make a dozen barbarians cut Lu Ji's head and make your camp like this. Are you hundreds of you all the wine bags that only know how to eat dry rice?!"

It was still waiting for Su Ding to vent his anger that Mo Zhu and a few young powerful men before he cried and defended: "General, this matter has nothing to do with us. Those barbarians were all rushing to take in by Lu Ji himself and arranged in his own team. How could we know that those barbarians were so bold that they dared to assassinate Lu Ji?"

"We can't blame us for the chaos in the camp. There are less than ten tents in total, and most of us can only sleep on the ground. How can we resist the sudden action of those barbarians?"

The defense was useless. The more Mo Zhu and a few young powerful men defended, the more Su Ding, who liked too much, cursed him. In the end, the county magistrate Xue Rang couldn't bear it anymore. In order to make good use of the precious human resources in the hands of Mo Zhu and other powerful men, he stood up to smooth things over and pleaded for Mo Zhu and others: "General Su calmed down. It is true that the leader of Mo Village and the others had a certain responsibility for what happened last night, but the one with the greatest responsibility was Lu Jilu Village. If he hadn't distinguished loyalty and treacherous and took in those barbarians, how could the situation be like this?"

"Yes, yes." Mo Zhu and several young strong men quickly agreed, and said, "It's just that Lu Ji. If he could be more careful when recruiting people, how could such a thing happen?"

After hearing Xue Rang's persuasion, he saw Xue Rang wink at his company. Su Ding's anger faded a little. After a moment of calculation, Su Ding made an arrangement and decided to let Mo Zhu command the Wu Lian militia transport land and fill the river, open a road directly to the city of Wu Lian for the large-scale siege weapons of the county soldiers. He arranged a county army to escort two small powerful men south to replace Lu Ji to try his best to capture the families of Wu Lian Han Army, and continue to use their families to threaten and attack the Wu Lian Han Army.

When he heard Su Ding's arrangement, Wu Ma, who had received favors from the Han army in this regard, had his face turned pale. Xue Rang tried his best to persuade him. However, Su Ding, who had already tasted the sweetness, refused to listen at all. He insisted on forcing a county garrison to rush south to the Mawei area to arrest people. As a result, at this moment, Su Ding's personal soldiers suddenly stepped in outside the tent and presented a red bag to Su Ding and said, "Report to General, when our scouts came out of the camp, we picked up a letter near our camp, and asked the general to take a look."

"The letters picked up near our camp? Whose letters?"

Su Ding took the letter bag in a strange way, opened it, took out the silk book to view it, and then just took a few rough glances. Su Ding suddenly widened his eyes, and then looked up at Wu Ma next to him in disbelief, and then quickly looked down at the letter. As a result, after reading the letter carefully, Su Ding immediately yelled, "Come on, take down Wu Ma's thief for this general!"

"What?"

None of the soldiers present, including Su Ding's personal soldiers, was stunned on the spot. Wu Ma almost suspected that he had heard the wrong ears. Su Ding was furious. While getting up and pressing the sword with his hand, he pointed at Wu Ma with his other finger and shouted: "Why are you still stunned? Why don't you take down the Wu Ma thief for this general? Hurry! Hurry!"

After hearing Su Ding's repeated orders, his personal soldiers stepped forward and first pulled their spears and surrounded Wu Ma. Xue Rang next to him was shocked and hurriedly stood up and asked, "General Su, what happened? Why did you suddenly take General Wu?"

"You see it yourself!" Su Ding handed the letter picked up by the county soldiers scout to Xue Rang, and said angrily: "Look at what good things did this traitor secretly collude with Zhang Zhi'er!"

Xue Rang was naturally shocked when he heard this. He quickly took the letter and read it carefully. However, he saw that the letter was still written by Zhang Zhi himself. The general content was: "Mahjong Wu, I know your intentions. Please rest assured. The subordinate led the troops to raise an army just to restore the country, not to seek self-reliance and power. Besides, the general's talent in governing the army is more than a hundred times better. If the general can really eliminate the evil thieves of Su Ding, command the county soldiers and soldiers to restore the country, he would rather serve Wu Jian's military power than with both hands. From then on, he will concentrate on the inner side and rely on the general's commander, and make a vow. If there are false words, the heaven and earth will not tolerate them. Wu Jian's acting county magistrate Zhang Zhi."

"Mr. Xue, have you seen it clearly?" Su Ding shouted again like a pig killer, saying: "Wu Ma is simply brave. Not only does he want to kill this general, he also wants to lead our soldiers from Ke County and Zhang Zhi'er to rebel, and then lead all the traitor army to rebel! It's simply seeking death, and he deserves death!"

Zhang Zhi's tricks fooled Su Ding, a mediocre talent who was promoted by nepotism, but could not hide it from Xue Rang's eyes. After a moment of calculation, Xue Rang immediately said: "General Su, please calm down and not be impulsive. This is Zhang Zhi's plan to distract himself! The purpose is to slander Mahjong Wu for having rebellious intentions and create civil strife for our army so that he can take things from it."

"How do you know it's a divisive plan?" Su Ding asked strangely.

"It's very simple. Is there such a coincidence in the world that can make General Wu's messenger lose his letters, and just let our scouts pick them up?"

Xue Rang asked back, pointing to the red letter bag and said, "Also, that red letter bag is also very problematic. General, please think about it. When have you ever seen someone deliberately use red cloth to make letters? Zhang Zhi's son deliberately chose to use a conspicuous red letter bag to put letters, which was clearly intended to attract the attention of our scouts. He asked him to send someone to throw the letters secretly near our camp and he would be discovered by our scouts soon."

Su Ding said nothing with a dark face, but just tried to start his head full of alcohol, sex and wealth to quickly plan. Xue Rangze said again: "General Su, please recall General Wu's reaction just now? When you ordered to take people, because the situation was too sudden, your personal soldiers had no time to react. If General Wu had a ghost in his heart, he would definitely take that opportunity to resist or escape. Why did he still stand waiting for your personal soldiers to take him down?"

After recalling the details just now, Su Ding was a little shaken. Wu Ma finally came to his senses and asked, "General Su, Juncheng Xue, what's going on? What exactly is written in that letter?"

"General Su, do you see it? General Wu himself is inexplicable."

Xue Rang asked with a wry smile, and then he handed the letter to Wu Ma to watch. As a result, Wu Ma, surrounded by Su Ding's personal soldiers, read the letter and laughed wildly, "It's ridiculous, it's unexpected that such a letter that is like a child's play actually made me Wu Ma bear such an injustice. General Su, you are so wise! So wise!"

"Wu Ma, don't be angry!" Xue Rang quickly scolded and said, "This is Zhang Zhi's shameless frame-up. General Su can certainly see that General Su just ordered you to be taken down because the matter was too sudden. It will be difficult for him to distinguish between true and false. Once the situation is clear, General Su will naturally return your innocence."

After saying that, Xue Rang quickly said to Su Ding: "General Su, you should think clearly now, right? This is clearly Zhang Zhi's plan of disagreement. The purpose is to make us lose peace in the army and generals of Ke County, suspect each other, so that he can take things from it. Please ask the general to quickly order Mahjong Wu to let him go, apologize, and then work together with General Wu to break through Wu Lian and quell Zhang Zhi's rebellion as soon as possible."

Xue Rang's persuasion failed to work this time. He had long been very dissatisfied with Wu Ma, who liked to sing the opposite tune. He also remembered the lesson of his powerful accomplice Lu Ji being assassinated by the barbarians last night. After repeated calculations for a long time, Su Ding still did not dare to take it lightly. He hesitated: "You can let go, but before this matter is clear, Wu Ma, you have to hand over the direct troops in your hands, and you must not go to the camp or participate in military aircraft at will. After this general has found out, it is proved that you are indeed innocent, so I can return the army to you."

"General Su..."

"Mr. Xue!"

Wu Ma interrupted Xue Rang's further persuasion first and said expressionlessly: "This is the best. To be honest, I don't want to fight this battle anymore. Since General Su has mercy and asked me to withdraw, I can't ask for anything, and I can just take it out and accompany my family more."

After saying that, Wu Ma pulled off the seal on his waist very readily, handed it to Su Ding's personal soldiers, then quickly took off his armor and took off his sword, and handed it to Su Ding's personal soldiers. Finally, he held his head high and stepped out of the tent. Seeing that Xue Rang was very anxious, he hurriedly said to Su Ding: "General Su, have you considered it clearly? General Wu is not only deeply grateful for the morale of the army, but also your right-hand assistant in commanding the army. He is not only a big impact on our morale of the army!"

"What are you afraid of? You can't die! At worst, I can work harder and take care of military affairs more."

Su Ding snorted coldly, and then he taught Xue Rang a lesson in reverse: "Mr. Xue, you can't say too absolutely. Who said that Wu Ma's people will definitely not be lost in letters? What ironclad evidence do you have to prove that Wu Mappa really has no strange intentions? If this letter was really lost by Wu Ma's messenger, Wu Mappa really has strange intentions, and we foolishly asked him to continue to command the troops, then we two might be like Lu Ji, and were chopped off in a confused way when we fell asleep!"

"And." Su Ding added: "You have forgotten the lessons of Zhang Fei and Fei Yi, Juncheng Xue? How powerful are they? Have you still died at the hands of an assassin?"

"Yes, the general is knowledgeable, and I admire him." Xue Rang replied helplessly.

Su Ding continued to calculate, and after a moment, two decisions were made. One was to arrange for his confidant to temporarily take over Wu Ma's direct team, and the other was to arrange a team to gather Wu Ma and his family to take care of him alone. He also told him that if there was any abnormality, he would take Wu Ma down immediately. Xue Rang was helpless and disappointed when he saw him, and knew that he could not persuade Su Ding, so he shut up and let him go.

Then, according to Su Ding's order, Mo Zhu and a few young Wu Lian strongmen joined forces. First, they forced the Han army prisoners to go out with their family as a threat, and organized the Wu Lian people whom they forced to come, and came to Wu Lian city with carrying poles and carts and other transportation tools. Under the protection of the troops of Ji Ke County, they began to transport soil, rocks and fill the moat at the south gate of Wu Lian. Although Zhang Zhi knew very well that these people were innocent, he also knew that the Han army soldiers who were forced to surrender yesterday must have been forced by the enemy, for the sake of city defense security, Zhang Zhi still made a decisive counterattack to prevent the Han army prisoners and the people from filling the river.

There were also tragic scenes under Wu Lian City. Under the beating and scolding of Mo Zhu and several young powerful people, the innocent Wu Lian people and Han army prisoners could only carry stones and push the soil and risk approaching the moat, pouring the earth and rocks into the river to fill the river. In order to protect the city, the Han army soldiers had to shoot arrows at these innocent people and their former comrades, and also pull the drag-and-drop catapult that had just been built, throwing stone bullets from the city to cover the crowd of people filling the river.

A commoner named Wu Lian was killed and injured. He was either shot dead and injured by the bow and arrow of the Han army soldiers, or was killed and injured by the stone bullets thrown by the Han army soldiers. Countless people threw down their shoulder poles and turned around to escape more than once. Mo Zhu and his best friends were not polite. They hid in a safe distance and just whipped and scolded them desperately, forcing the people to turn back and fill the river. The people were trapped in the middle and were in a dilemma, and the crying never stopped.

What's worse was the Han army prisoners. As long as they were a little timid and retreated, they would immediately be beaten by Mo Zhu and others. Many Han army prisoners were beaten to the point of blood and flesh. Mo Zhu and others, who were supported by the county soldiers, were merciless and forced these wounded Han army prisoners to continue to move forward and risked their lives to fill the river and open the way for the county soldiers.

Finally, when the sun was about to set, Mo Zhu and other powerful men offered mercy to allow the people to return to the camp to rest. As a result, standing on Wulian City, watching the messy scene of the corpses under the city, Zhang Zhi not only ordered people to go out of the city to rescue the injured and unconscious people and prisoners, but also finally made up his mind to say to the three generals of Wulian who were following behind: "We must take a risk, otherwise, even if we can survive until the county's military and food are gone, our overall strength will be greatly damaged."

"Mingting, I'm waiting for you to speak." Zhu Xiang said calmly: "The torches, dry food and drinking water have been prepared for a long time and can be distributed in place at any time."

"Don't worry about the physical strength of our soldiers!" Zhao Quan also said: "Since eating the instant noodles you gave us by Mingting, our soldiers have made great progress in physical strength. Fighting overnight is definitely not a problem."

"More than fifty sets of paper armor have been made." Fu Gong said more directly, "Let us vanguard warriors wear paper armor to fight. Light infantry can have the combat power of heavy infantry!"

Zhang Zhi nodded, then extended his right hand to Wu Liansan General. Wu Liansan General also extended his right hand together, clasped it tightly with Zhang Zhi's right hand, and shook it hard!

…………

What happened next on the county soldiers would definitely make the three generals Zhang Zhi and Wu Lian, who had decided to take a risk, laughed out loud.

After leading his confidants to force the people and Han army prisoners back to the simple camp, he noticed the hatred gaze of the people in the camp. Seeing the Han army prisoners holding back their anger, he recalled the lesson that Lu Ji was cut off his head in his sleep last night. After a little discussion with the young powerful, Mo Zhu simply ran to Su Ding and nodded and bowed his begging, begging Su Ding to allocate some county soldiers to station in the camp of Wu Lian militia, helping Wu Lian to take care of the people and strengthen defense.

Then it’s not bad. Considering that there must be enough people to act as cannon fodder when filling the river and opening the road, there are indeed too many hidden dangers in the Wulian militia camp, which are captives of hundreds of Han army captives, Su Ding waved his hand and ordered a county soldier to carry tent weapons and move to the Wulian militia camp to help Mo Zhu and others. As a result, Mo Zhu left happily. However, not long after, the county magistrate of Ke Xue Rang rushed into the central army's tent and asked nervously: "General Su, transfer a tent to Mo Zhu and their camp. Did you give this order?"

"Nonsense." Su Ding smiled and said, "Without the general's order, the governor dared to change the camp privately?"

"Why should we divide our troops to station in Mozhu's camp?" Xue Rang asked.

"Because there is insufficient manpower there," Su Ding explained: "Although they are loyal, their number of trustworthy people is too small. They have to take care of so many people and the soldiers who have just surrendered. The manpower is really insufficient. Therefore, in order to control the people and prisoners, we have enough manpower to fill the river, the general sent a garrison team to help."

"General, have you considered the safety of our camp?"

Xue Rang said in a deep voice: "We only have eight garrisons in total. We failed to attack the city before, and we had already paid more than one garrison, which caused eight garrisons to be dissatisfied. During the day, you have sent a garrison to the Mawei area, and now you have sent a garrison to Mozhu's camp. Then, in our camp, there are only six garrisons with dissatisfied garrisons left with more than 500 people to guard the camp. Such a small amount of troops still have to stay overnight. If Zhang Zhi's thief army seizes the opportunity to attack, how can we resist?"

"Zhang Zhi's son is here to attack?" Su Ding almost laughed and said, "That general is so eager! What kind of army we are, the regular army of the army of the Kinke County, the best weapons and equipment! What kind of army is Zhang Zhi's son's thief army? Even the few arches and crossbows are pitifully ill. I'm afraid that there will be no ten pieces of iron armor made of two-dang armor throughout the city. Can we be afraid of them?"

"But Zhang Zhi's son has a lot of morale, general, do you know?" Xue Rang raised his voice and said angrily: "Didn't you see that no matter how coercive and tempted us, Zhang Zhi's thief army has been formed for more than 20 days. Except for the soldiers who were captured by us, none of them took the initiative to surrender to us! You have seen and heard of such a mob from ancient times to the present?!"
Chapter completed!
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