In the tent, Xiao Si, the prince of the Poyang King, was listening to someone telling the story, and another person stood next to him. Apart from that, there were no one else in the tent, and soldiers were surrounded outside the tent, so idle people were not allowed to approach.

The man who reported the matter to Xiao Si was the guard beside him, from Poyang, with his surname Li and his name as Lang.

The tall man standing next to him was a scholar from Dongye, a native of Poyang, with his surname and name Li. Not long ago, Li Li learned that the prince of Poyang led his army to Jiankang and quickly came to serve.

Li Li had dealt with Xiao Si before. Xiao Si thought Li Li was different and had intended to recruit him before. Now that he saw Li Li being effective, he would certainly not turn him away.

Now, the two "Li" in front of Xiao Si are genuine fellow villagers.

The Li family and Peng family are the great surnames of Poyang, and the guard Li Lang is the son of the Poyang family - the Li clan. As for Li Li, although the surname is Li, he is not a son of the Li clan of Poyang.

What Li Lang said had been reported to Xiao Si before, but now he retelled it once, in fact, to Li Li beside him.

"I went here to gain the trust of the thief. I entered the city at night and learned about the situation in the city."

"Zhong Yi, the leader of the Central Army, was accused by civil and military officials of harming the country and the people, and was ashamed and died of illness."

"There is now a shortage of food in the city, and all the rats and birds are preyed on. The soldiers are hungry and steam the leather armor and leather for consumption."

"There is also a shortage of firewood, so many palaces were demolished and the wood was used to chop firewood to burn it."

"The number of dead is increasing, and there seems to be a plague in the city."

"Shangshu Yang, who was in charge of the city defense, died of illness in December last year. People in the city were volatile and people began to flee and defect to the rebels. The prince once sent Xian Ma Yuan Menggong to attack. As a result, Yuan Menggong had just left the Grand Sima Gate and surrendered to the enemy with his men."

"This time, Wei Zhi entered the city, Your Majesty, His Highness was very pleased to hear that reinforcements had arrived in the south of the city. After learning about it, the soldiers guarding the city were excited and thought that no one would escape in the near future."

"However, there are many casualties in the city. If you delay it, I'm afraid..."

After Li Lang finished speaking, he paused, and saw Xiao Si nodding and continued:

"I think if I delay any further, even if the city has enough food and enough staff, I can still defend it. But I am afraid that someone will open the door to offer the city for wealth."

Xiao Si didn't say anything, and Li Li, who was listening, also started to think.

Xiao Si arrived in Jiankang with his troops, but he did not know the situation in Taicheng. Guard Li Lang volunteered to do a tough trick.

Li Lang deliberately violated military discipline and was beaten by Xiao Si in public, so he "stopped the enemy in anger", gained the trust of the rebels and had the opportunity to approach Taicheng.

One night, Li Lang took the risk of sneaking into Taicheng, revealing his identity to the defenders, and successfully entering the city. The emperor and the crown prince got the news and knew that the king's troops had arrived in Jiankang. He was very happy and appointed as the general of the Zhige.

Then Li Lang ventured out of the city and brought back the news from the city.

A moment later, Xiao Si asked Li Li: "Li Jianzuo, what do you think?"

Li Li quickly replied: "I want to ask General Li about something first."

"Yes, you can ask casually."

Li Li came to the door to serve himself, but he had not obtained any position. Now, as he is, he is not qualified to give advice to Xiao Si, the prince of Poyang.

However, after Xiao Si got the news from Li Lang, he had no idea what to do next, and the opinions of the assistants could not be unified, so he thought of Li Li.

He thought Li Li was very special, so he asked him to come in and listen to see if Li Li had any good ideas.

That is, he was so angry that he wanted to seek medical treatment. Li Li knew this and didn't talk nonsense. He asked Li Lang: "May I ask, is the final decision of His Majesty in the city now, or is the final decision of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?"

"It is His Highness the Crown Prince who has the final say." Li Lang replied, and then added: "It is His Majesty who asked His Highness the Crown Prince to be fully responsible for the affairs in the city."

"So, are the traitors' military rations sufficient?"

"This is not clear, but the thief should not have much food and grass when he attacked Jiankang. Now the army's grain should be collected on the spot in Jiankang."

"After all, there are many wealthy families in the city, as well as various residences, warehouses, and thieves who are plundering will always get a lot of food."

Li Li asked carefully and had a scheming in his heart.

Of course, he had thought about the current situation with Zhang Ying in advance, because he didn't want to see Jiankang and even the land of the Three Wus turn into white land, so he had to do something.

Now based on the information provided by Li Lang, I will make a judgment on it myself, so the suggestions I need to give will be soon.

"The next step, I think..."

Li Li believes that Taicheng's offensive and defense lasted for three months, and the rebels and Taicheng defenders have actually begun to lack food.

The rebels quickly attacked Taicheng, but it turned into a long-term siege. The royal army then rushed over and confronted the rebels on the periphery, forming a situation of one link after another.

The rebels occupied the northern bank of the Qinhuai River and the area west of Qingxi, which means that the east and south of Jiankang were now occupied by the royal army.

The rebels occupied the north of Jiankang City and the stone city on the riverside west of the city. Although Tongjiang Road, there were no foreign aid ships to send food and grass to provide assistance.

If you continue to fight like this, you will definitely collapse due to the exhaustion of food and grass.

Perhaps because of this reason, and the King's Army suffered two consecutive defeats, the generals of various units began to slack off and wanted to waste the rebels without fighting.

However, how long can Taicheng, which also has no foreign food and supplies, last?

Maybe it can last longer than the rebels, because there are more rebels and fewer defenders, so the consumption of food is different.

Now, everyone in the city knows that the royal army has arrived. If they have not seen the support for a long time, the hearts of the people in the city may fluctuate again. Then the chances of someone opening the door to offer the city will increase greatly.

Can the crown prince who is in charge of Taicheng's defense affairs and already has real power?

Li Lang just said that not long ago, the crown prince sent people to attack, but thousands of people left the city and immediately surrendered to the enemy. This was a serious blow to the crown prince's confidence in sticking to it.

Therefore, if you drag on it, there will be more and more dreams. The food shortage in Taicheng will become more and more serious, and more people will die, and the despair will spread.

It is very likely that someone will not be able to stand it next time and open the door to offer the city.

Then, the crown prince is likely to have a strong need for peace, first satisfying the various needs of the rebels, and even promising to break the ground and let the plague gods leave.

If the rebels use it, under the guise of peace talks, and require the court to supply food and grass, the food and grass will be fed again.

When Xiao Si heard this, he remained silent. He felt that such a thing could not have happened, and the prince would not have been so stupid.

Seeing this, Li Li continued to express his opinion.

For the crown prince, the biggest enemy at the moment is Hou Jing's rebels besieging Taicheng. However, the royal family and generals who came to serve the king may also be the enemy in the eyes of the crown prince.

The rebels attacked the city, and the Taicheng defenders suffered heavy casualties. According to Li Lang, the city's troops are about 30,000. How many soldiers are there outside Jiankang?

It is said that there are nearly 300,000. Of course, this must be exaggerated, but it must be much more than the Taicheng defenders.

If the Taicheng defenders and the rebels fought both sides and suffered losses, and the rebels who were greatly damaged in the end were annihilated by the King's Army, then...

Whoever controls the King's Army next will be able to control the Taiwan City, control the center, and get involved in the imperial throne.

Previously, Wei Can, the governor of Hengzhou who had been rushing thousands of miles to support, was the confidant of the crown prince. Wei Can was also cousin of the Grand Governor (the commander of the King's Army) Liu Zhongli.

If Wei Can is there, the crown prince would be relieved to support the royal army by a hundred times, but Wei Can has already sacrificed his life for the country.

The crown prince may not trust Liu Zhongli, nor can he trust other royal families and generals.

If the rebels are destroyed, and a royal family or general who controls the royal army suddenly attacks, controls the emperor and the crown prince, what should we do?

Not to mention anything else, Xiao Lun, the King of Shaoling, has always been eyeing the position of crown prince. He has done many arrogant actions before and even pursued rebellion several times, but has not been severely punished after the failure.

In recent years, King Shaoling has successively served as the governor of Danyang and the governor of Southern Xuzhou, with a reputation as the crown prince. If the crown prince has an accident, then according to the old rules of brothers and brothers, the prince who succeeds the crown prince is King Shaoling.

It is precisely because of this that the Crown Prince had already expanded the Eastern Palace Guard to guard against King Shaoling.

Now, King Shaoling is in the army of the king. Once he secretly colluded with some generals, he promised to be a high-ranking official and generous salary, and then he took advantage of the defeat of the rebels and the army entered the city.

At that time, the soldiers are coming to the palace and force them to be forced to do so. What can civil and military officials do? What can the emperor and the crown prince?

If King Shaoling ascended the throne and became emperor as he wished, these generals who followed the palace to force the palace would become Yuan Cong's ministers. How many people could withstand such temptation?

Crown Prince, do you dare to take this risk?

If the emperor still held real power, he might choose to continue to waste his life with the rebels. After all, he had led troops to fight wars when he was young, but he had never seen any storms.

To put it more ruthlessly, whether it is the crown prince or the king of Shaoling, they are the emperor's biological sons. So who will be the new king in the future? Is there any difference for the father?

Back then, the emperor could abandon the descendants of Prince Zhaoming and let the crown prince be a brother and a brother. Then, if someone was forced to palace, it was not impossible for him to abandon the current crown prince and King Shaoling as the crown prince.

Therefore, for the emperor, whether King Shaoling, who was the King outside the city, would "be profitable" be actually not the most important thing, but the crown prince could not take this risk.

Then, the crown prince is very likely to make peace with the rebels, find ways to meet the other party's request, and quickly ask the plague god to leave.

Then close the gates of Taicheng, let the generals of the royal army enter the city alone, or let each army return to the town, so that the crisis can be resolved.

After Li Li finished speaking, Xiao Si was still silent, while Li Lang kept looking at this fellow villager.

Of course, Li Lang heard of Li Li's name. After all, the two consecutive cases that occurred in Poyang that year were related to Li Li. He knew that Li Li is now very famous and has many connections in Poyang.

He even married Tie Dihuang's daughter and became brother-in-law with the big catfish Peng, so this is different from the past.

Li Lang also knew that the prince seemed to value Li Li a little, so he had the current advice.

But who is Li Li? It was just a supervisor of Dongye. He was only submitted to the prince’s account not long ago. What qualifications are there to give advice to the prince?

Li Lang felt that the prince was just in a hurry to seek medical treatment, so he asked Li Li to give advice to see if it was feasible. However, now, Li Li was very talkative and felt that he had a lot of ideas.

After a long time, Xiao Si asked, "Then, what are your good plans?"

Li Li replied: "First, please attack Dongfu City and stop the rebels' thoughts."

"Dongfu City?" Xiao Si was a little confused.

"Yes, Dongfucheng."

Li Li said slowly, and presented the strategy he discussed with Zhang Ying to Xiao Si: "Dongfu City was taken down by the rebels before, and a large amount of food and grass was stored in the city, but it seemed that it did not transport much from outside."

"Maybe the rebels thought they could quickly step down from Taicheng, so they didn't expect to transport the food and grass from Dongfu City. As a result, when the King of War came, they couldn't get it even if they wanted to."
To be continued...