boyutpedia Chapter 223 Yingzhou City Becomes a Living Hell
Chapter 223 Yingzhou City Becomes a Living Hell
"Although we know where the mine is, we cannot go there before we take control of Yingzhou City. Otherwise, none of the people who are caught and forced to mine will survive. We cannot rush this matter..." Gu Qingrong frowned.
"The scouts who were exploring the way haven't come back yet. Let's wait and see what news there is before making specific arrangements. I received a pigeon message saying that Yan'er and Lin'er went to Yuzhou to ask Princess Yongjia to send troops to support Kyoto. We can't delay here either. We must control Yingzhou City as soon as possible and then rush to Youzhou."
Before the two brothers left the capital, they had guessed that there would be chaos in the capital, but they didn't expect it to happen so soon!
Prince Yong had been planning for so many years. He had been in Youzhou for many years without returning to the capital to report on his work, but he cultivated his confidants and made a mess of the court.
Prince Ling has been poisoned for many years and is in poor health, so shouldn't we just let him stir up trouble?
Fortunately, Prince Ling was extremely blessed and he managed to prevent Prince Yong from succeeding!
When it was almost dawn, one of the scouts who had gone out to explore the way came back and brought back a man. That man was an old yamen runner from the prefectural government office in Yingzhou City and also Yunhua's father.
To be precise, it is the adoptive father.
The scout went to the direction Yunhua said, carrying Yunhua's personal token. The old yamen runner believed Yunhua's words only after he saw the token.
After meeting Gu Qingrong and Gu Qingmao, he performed the official etiquette in a formal manner.
"I have met the two generals..."
Gu Qingrong hurried forward to help him. "Captain Yun, there's no need to be so polite. Thank you for taking the trouble to let your son report the news. Only then did His Majesty know about the suffering of the people in Yingzhou. Please tell me about the current situation in the city..."
When Captain Yun was young, he was also an ambitious young man with pretty good martial arts skills, but he spent his entire life working as a captain in the prefectural government office in Yingzhou City.
"Pan Fu, the garrison commander of Yingzhou City, has placed the prefect under house arrest and allowed his officers and soldiers to rob women. Many girls have been raped and have no face to live. Some have jumped into wells, some have jumped into rivers, and some have hanged themselves from beams... They take pleasure in bullying the people every day. All the men aged 16 to 60 in the city have been taken to the mines. All those who have been taken out are dead bodies. Now, there are only some unarmed old, weak, women and children left in the city... In the past, under the governance of the prefect, Yingzhou City was a place where no one would pick up things on the road and no one would lock their doors at night. Since the arrival of General Pan, it has become a living hell..."
As Captain Yun spoke, he began to wipe away his tears.
He hated himself for not being 20 or 30 years younger. If Pan Fu had appeared when he was young and strong, he would have chopped off his head even at the cost of his own life to prevent him from continuing to do evil.
But now he is very old, and there is only so much he can do...
Moreover, if Pan Fu was really killed, the 30,000 troops under his command would be left without anyone to control them, and no one knew what kind of chaos would arise.
Therefore, killing Pan Fu was just a reckless act and could not solve the fundamental problem.
"Captain Yun, you should be very familiar with everything in Yingzhou City. Can you draw a map of the city so that we can understand the location and defense layout of the city and make a plan to capture Pan Fu?"
To catch a thief, you must first catch the leader. As long as we control Pan Fu, those people under his command will be easy to deal with!
After all, everyone knows that rebellion is a capital crime punishable by the execution of nine generations of the clan. Pan Fu and his confidants may have rebellious intentions, but there are not 30,000 people who all want to rebel.
Captain Yun didn't say anything, but just lowered his head, took out a roll of cloth from his waist, and handed it to Gu Qingrong with both hands.
Gu Qingrong unfolded the cloth and saw that it contained a map of Yingzhou City.
The streets and alleys, big and small, are clearly marked.
The deployment of troops in the city and the shift rotations are also described in great detail.
"My wife is a doctor. She goes into the city every day on the pretext of seeing patients. This picture was drawn by her. Although Pan Fu is cruel and loves to cause trouble, there are some wealthy families in Yingzhou City that he dare not offend. Therefore, my wife was able to enter the city smoothly. He and his men hang out in brothels and get drunk all day long. Therefore, it is not difficult to capture him. It's just that he is the chief general of Yingzhou City, and the prefect cannot mobilize his soldiers, so he is under house arrest in the prefecture. However, he has a deputy general under his command, who looks down on Pan Fu's bullying of the people, but he is only a deputy general with limited power. As the saying goes, a higher official can crush a lower one, so he can only not go along with the crowd, but he has no way to stop it. General Gu can start with this deputy general, capture Pan Fu, and control his men!"
Gu Qingrong carefully noted down the locations of defenses in the city and the shift shift times, and then handed the map to Gu Qingmao.
Continue to ask Captain Yun about things in the city.
"Today, Pan Fu killed a lot of civilians again, and then hung the bodies on the city gate to show his authority. According to his previous habits, at dawn, he would order people to take the bodies down and transport them to the mass grave outside the city. This is when the most people will be watching. The general can take advantage of this opportunity to sneak in and get in touch with Deputy General Yu. Deputy General Yu was born and raised in Yingzhou. His parents both live in the city, and his home is here..."
Captain Yun pointed at the eye-catching red dot on the map.
Ever since Pan Fu embarked on a path of no return, he has put the entire Yingzhou City under control. Citizens entering and leaving the city have to undergo strict screening. If outsiders enter the city, they have to go through layers of inspection and will only be allowed to pass after being confirmed to have no problems.
So the biggest difficulty at the moment is to enter the city. As long as we enter the city and capture Pan Fu, everything else will be easy...
They have 50,000 troops, 50,000 against 30,000, so they have an overwhelming chance of winning.
However, their goal was not to fight, but to safely rescue the people in the city and the people in the mines.
If the army were to march directly to the gates of the city, Pan Fu would be desperate and use the civilians as targets, and they would be afraid to act and would be unable to do anything.
"Brother, the more people there are, the easier it is to attract attention. Tomorrow, Lao Fang and I will enter the city in disguise. Lao Fang will go to find the prefect, and I will find a way to contact Deputy General Yu. We will work together from inside and outside, using a whistling arrow as a signal. As soon as Pan Fu is captured, you will lead your troops to besiege the city and force his men to open the city gates!"
They left the capital secretly, so the news should not have spread so quickly. Pan Fu was busy living a life of drunkenness and dreaming, so he would not be so vigilant.
Gu Qingrong originally wanted to go by himself, but as the commander-in-chief, he could not leave his post unless it was absolutely necessary.
The only solution now was to do as Gu Qingmao said and lead his men into the city first.
"Okay, then let's plan how you can disguise yourself so that you can enter the city safely."
Captain Yun also wanted to help, but the soldiers guarding the city gate recognized him. If he was present, it would inevitably increase suspicion, so he could only worry.