Chapter 12 3. Jia Lu Wei Hao, a protracted war to save himself at the end

As Guo Zixing's son-in-law, Zhu Yuanzhang knew more about the contradictions among the core classes in Haozhou City.Although he is on the side of his father-in-law, he is dissatisfied with the five temperance marshals in the city, as well as Peng Da and Zhao Junyong who came to join him.Since these people occupied Haozhou, they did not seek development and did not go out of the city. They fought in the city all day long, which made morale low.Even the most elite Guo Zixing and Sun Deya tribes were weakened by each other's grudges.Zhu Yuanzhang was caught in the middle and could only see Guo Zixing being squeezed out.He came up with a lot of ideas, but he couldn't ease the conflict, and he himself was in the conflict, and was excluded and made things difficult by Guo Tianxu everywhere.

Seeing November, in the middle of winter, the weather is getting colder.The city of Haozhou had been worried that the Yuan army would chase them from Xuzhou to Haozhou, but there was no movement, and there was not much food and grass hoarded in the city, which could not last until the next spring. The marshals sent people outside the city to collect food and grass.Before the food and grass were ready, the news of Jia Lu's encirclement of Haozhou spread to the city. At this time, the marshals also ignored the conflicts between each other, put aside their internal strife, and conspired how to deal with the Yuan army.

Returning from the discussion that day, Guo Zixing approached Guo Tianxu, Zhu Yuanzhang and several soldiers under his command to discuss how to deal with the Yuan soldiers. Zhu Yuanzhang knew that as long as he spoke his mind first, he would be rejected by Guo Tianxu, and Guo Tianxu was an impulsive person. In any case, he could not reveal the discord between the two in front of Marshal Guo and outsiders. Guo Tianxu was preempted by Zhu Yuanzhang in some matters. At this time, he had the opportunity to express himself, and he was really eloquent. He tried his best to encourage Guo Zixing to fight out of Haozhou City, kill those Yuan troops, show the Guo family's prestige, and show the marshals how powerful they are.

The other officers and soldiers usually think of Guo Tianxu as the son of the marshal, and they are a bit humble to him, and they dare not refute him. On the surface, they praise his bravery, but in fact, everyone is a little scared in their hearts, and their faces are quite unnatural.Everyone knows that it is not an option to fight head-on with the Yuan army with the existing forces. Seeing that Guo Tianxu was so reckless and unhappy, Guo Zixing saw that everyone was silent, so he said, "Yuanzhang, you have been silent all this time, let me hear what's on your mind." Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and smiled politely at Guo Tianxu, then looked at Guo Zixing again and said, "Marshal, brother Guo's suggestion is very reasonable. But the marshals have some conflicts at the moment, and I'm afraid they will go out to fight in the city, and the army will not be united, and they will be calculated instead."

Guo Zixing remembered being teased by Sun Deya a few days ago, nodded in agreement with Zhu Yuanzhang's words, and asked him to continue to talk about his views. Zhu Yuanzhang knew that he could not let Guo Tianxu fail to step down. He still had to rely on the Guo family now, so he had to let Guo Tianxu everywhere and obey his arrangements in everything.He also knew that Guo Zixing was just trying to use himself, and he had to rely on himself to plan for a future. Now that he was in the midst of right and wrong, he had to be careful in his actions and his words and deeds.He does not fight for immediate interests, but looks at the long-term future.

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Guo Tianxu again, Guo Tianxu was squinting at him with a look of disdain.Zhu Yuanzhang bowed his head and remained silent, implying that Guo Zixing should not speak much at this time.Guo Zixing also knew that there was a conflict between Guo Tianxu and Zhu Yuanzhang, so he stopped asking and asked everyone to retreat first, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang to say something. Zhu Yuanzhang thanked Guo Zixing, and continued: "Now that Jia Lu is besieging Haozhou, it is reasonable to fight back vigorously, but if we send troops now, it is unlikely that Sun Deya and Peng Da will help. It doesn't matter if they don't cooperate. If we cut off our food and grass in the rear, then..."

Before Zhu Yuanzhang could finish speaking, Guo Zixing said, "This is exactly what my commander is worried about." Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Defending the city is the main thing, and counterattack is the second. Even if we counterattack, the marshal's elite soldiers may be the vanguard. From our point of view, we are not afraid to send troops, but we must pull Sun Deya to fight together. A few days ago, he even threatened the marshal. It's not good for us to stay in the city." Zhu Yuanzhang also reported to Guo Zixing the recent grain requisitions and the grain requisitions of other commanders he had found out. It is estimated that it will not be a problem to persist for a few months.In this way, Guo Zixing made an incisive and thorough analysis at the meeting of the marshals, and at the same time, he took the initiative to invite Sun Deya to attack the Yuan army together when necessary.Several marshals could not refute, especially Sun Deya was unwilling, but it was not easy to refuse in court.

Haozhou City entered a state of emergency, and soldiers from all ministries were strictly guarded, the gates of the city were closed, and they refused to fight.The marshals in the city didn't care about the conflicts among themselves, they discussed matters and discussed all day long, and climbed the city wall to watch the movement outside the city.In fact, they were very worried. This time, the Yuan army had a large number of people, and they surrounded the city tightly, and they camped near the city. They don't know how long the siege will take. Zhu Yuanzhang knew that this was a critical period for him, and he had to be steady and calm at such a moment.Because Guo Tianxu has been looking for opportunities to get rid of him, the enemy can be defended, but the hidden arrows are hard to hide.Now nestled in Haozhou City, he can't escape Guo Tianxu's grasp. A few days ago, he was humiliated and made things difficult because he was involved in soup and drinking a little wine.Fortunately, Zhu Yuanzhang was sincere and insisted on punishing Tang He and himself, so the matter was settled.

Seeing that the Yuan army besieged the city for a long time, neither side moved, the commander in the city couldn't hold back, and decided to send Sun Deya and Guo Zixing's troops out of the city at the same time to attack the enemy and break the siege.Zhu Yuanzhang tried his best to persuade Guo Zixing to fight an ambush in Hulukou outside the city, because the terrain of Hulukou is favorable, with two mountains and a river sandwiched between them.Guo Zixing thought Zhu Yuanzhang's suggestion was very good, so he ordered Zhu Yuanzhang to follow his subordinate General Hu to lead his troops to the formation, and at the same time ordered Zhu Yuanzhang to cooperate with Sun Deya's troops.Guo Zixing was determined to beat Sun Deya this time, to show the marshals in the city how powerful he is.

Zhu Yuanzhang was full of fighting spirit and was ready to take this opportunity to show his talents. What Zhu Yuanzhang didn't expect was that General Hu had followed Guo Zixing for many years and looked down on him as a recruit, and Zhu Yuanzhang was on the rise, so good luck made him a little dissatisfied.At the same time, relying on himself as the deputy commander, Guo Tianxu secretly told General Hu not to attack casually, but to wait for Sun Deya's troops to go up first, and wait until Sun Deya's men were almost beaten and died before leading troops to attack. Sun Deya's military strength was able to achieve victories, killing two birds with one stone, and secretly asked General Hu to get rid of Zhu Yuanzhang at the right time.General Hu was very satisfied with these orders. One was that he didn't have to fight hard, and he had military exploits, and the other was that he could get rid of Zhu Yuanzhang, whom he hated.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know about this.He only remembered Guo Zixing's instructions, took the initiative to attack, bravely killed the enemy, and actively cooperated with Sun Deya's army.These are exactly the opposite of Guo Tianxu's secret arrangements. When it was time to leave the city, Zhu Yuanzhang followed General Hu and led his troops to go secretly to the Hulukou area late at night, and Sun Deya's men and horses had another ambush not far away.At dawn, seeing the Yuan soldiers lined up listlessly not far away, Sun Deya's troops had already attacked. Zhu Yuanzhang urged General Hu to send troops, but General Hu looked disapproving and kept saying wait.Later, he got impatient, and General Hu wanted to punish Zhu Yuanzhang for violating military orders, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not show weakness: "Let's just remember that when we left the city, Marshal Guo told his brothers to fight the enemy bravely, and Marshal Sun's soldiers were fighting ahead. We are waiting here, how is this ridiculous?" General Hu said angrily: "I am the general here, and you have no say. Don't think that you are the son-in-law of the marshal, so I will let you get three points. I have the final say today, just wait!" The two had some disputes, and the other soldiers didn't dare to persuade them, mainly because they didn't know who to persuade. During the struggle, the weapons of the two men rubbed against each other, so they used their weapons. The main reason was that General Hu wanted to take the opportunity to kill Zhu Yuanzhang. Anyway, Guo Tianxu supported him, so it would be no harm to kill him. Unexpectedly, Zhu Yuanzhang was taller, younger and smarter than him, so he killed General Hu first. Zhu Yuanzhang knew that the situation was not good, but fortunately he reacted quickly, stood up and shouted to the soldiers: "Brothers, it was our fault for killing General Hu by mistake, but the current situation is not the time to argue about this matter. The rebel army in front is fighting with Yuan soldiers. Let's fight, we can't wait. We are the same rebel army, only by fighting the enemy together can we have the hope of victory. Brothers fight first, and we, Zhu Yuanzhang, will be punished after we return to the city." Said the first to rush forward. The soldiers were impatient for a long time, and couldn't understand what General Hu had done just now. At this time, under the leadership of Zhu Yuanzhang, they all rushed forward, fought bravely, and won the initial victory. After returning to the city, Guo Tianxu saw that Zhu Yuanzhang came back alive, and was furious. When he found out that General Hu was dead, he immediately wanted to lock Zhu Yuanzhang up.Zhu Yuanzhang sincerely pleaded guilty and asked to be detained.He knew that there was a girl named Ma, so he didn't need to plead for mercy, and Guo Zixing would not just kill himself if he won the battle this time. Just as he was about to detain someone, Guo Zixing, who was discussing the matter, came back. Seeing this scene, he was furious, so he stopped Guo Tianxu and told Zhu Yuanzhang to go back to his room to rest. It turned out that Guo Zixing was very honorable because of his meritorious service in killing the enemy at the marshal meeting.But Sun Deya learned that he was slow in dispatching troops, so he held on to him and threatened him tightly. Fortunately, Guo Zixing calmed down the quarrel because he said that he had punished General Hu.This time, Zhu Yuanzhang was able to make up for it. However, news of Jia Lu's death soon came, and the Marshal in the city was very happy and celebrated with great joy. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang advised Guo Zixing to attack again.Because once the commander dies, the morale will be low, and besides, after several months of besieging the city, the Yuan soldiers must be exhausted. At this time, rushing to send troops before the marshals must be a good opportunity to win a big victory.Guo Zixing followed Zhu Yuanzhang's suggestion and asked Zhu Yuanzhang to lead his troops to attack. Sure enough, the Yuan army had no fighting spirit and quickly broke through.Guo Zixing admired Zhu Yuanzhang's bravery and wisdom even more, and promoted him to deputy marshal.Zhu Yuanzhang did not dare to accept it, fearing that it would arouse greater jealousy, and worried that it was Guo Zixing's temptation. Zhu Yuanzhang and Guo Zixing's efforts and accurate judgments in guarding Haozhou are obvious to all. Zhu Yuanzhang's prestige among the soldiers gradually surpassed that of Guo Tianxu.It was also through this incident that Zhu Yuanzhang deeply understood that he had to stand on his own and could no longer rely on the Guo family.He is just a pawn of the Guo family. He is the one who goes up when it is most dangerous and needs to work hard, and he will definitely have to carry it when there is a problem.At the same time, he couldn't see any great future with Guo Zixing. He was a person who couldn't protect himself. Zhu Yuanzhang decided to unite his brothers to go out of Haozhou City and develop a new world.