Before receiving Zhu Guobi's letter, Li Dingguo had already learned of his whereabouts and told Wang Fuzhi the news.
"Sir Wang, Zhu Guobi is escorting millions of taels of tax silver to the capital. He will pass by Yuyuan in a few days. I think we can take this opportunity to catch all the Yuyuan thieves who are unwilling to surrender." Li Dingguo hurriedly came to Wang Fuzhi and said quickly.
Wang Fuzhi frowned and thought for a while: "What's going on inside Yuyuan? How much grain is left?"
"According to the latest news, the food has been almost eaten up."
"Is this the news spread by Ren Qi and others?" Wang Fuzhi asked.
"No, they disappeared into the sea after returning to Yuyuan. We have completely lost contact with them."
"Normal," Wang Fuzhi smiled slightly, "I asked them to do this, otherwise they would not be able to gain the trust of the rebels who were unwilling to surrender. By the way, how did you know that the food in Yuyuan was almost gone?"
"Hehe," Li Dingguo said with a smile, "Ever since the Yuyuan thieves opened the porridge factory, I have sent soldiers to pretend to be ordinary people to eat at the porridge factory every day. At the beginning, the porridge in the porridge factory was so good that you could put chopsticks in it and it wouldn't fall over, and it wouldn't leak when wrapped in a towel."
"The porridge has been too watery these past few days. Not only can you stick a chopstick in it without it falling over, but you can even count the rice grains with just one spoonful."
"So I guess the Yuyuan thieves' food supply is about to run out."
"That makes sense," Wang Fuzhi stood up excitedly, "Great, I've finally waited for this day."
"Sir," Li Dingguo began to tell Wang Fuzhi about his plan after he stood still. "I want to spread the news that the tax silver will pass by Yuyuan soon, and use the tax silver as bait to lure the Yuyuan thieves. The Yuyuan thieves have run out of food, and they will definitely take risks after hearing the news. As long as they leave Yuyuan, I can catch them all in one fell swoop."
"Well..." Wang Fuzhi hesitated, "It's not that I don't support you, it's just that this matter is of great importance. The deficit of the court depends on this money. If we mess it up, not only will our careers end here, but we may also lose our lives and property."
"No," Li Dingguo smiled and shook his head, "Of course we can't use real tax silver as bait, that's too risky. My method is to pass off fake ones as real ones to lure the snake out of its hole!"
Wang Fuzhi was stunned for a moment, then he laughed out loud: "This is a brilliant plan, this is a brilliant plan!"
Li Dingguo leaned forward and discussed the next plan to quell the rebellion with Wang Fuzhi.
To suppress a rebellion, one must not only defeat the enemy with force, but also make them convinced.
Once Du Ze's army leaves, they will rebel again.
After discussing the plan, Li Dingguo began to deploy troops.
He first ordered some elite troops to take the grain transport vehicles and leave the military camp under the cover of night.
Their mission was to disguise themselves as a convoy transporting tax silver and serve as bait.
After the first group of people were disguised, he had people spread the news that the tax silver was about to pass by.
at last.
He also sent people into Yuyuan to contact Ren Qi and others, the leaders of the Yuyuan Army who had already surrendered to the court.
......
Elm Garden.
When the first ray of sunlight in the early morning shone into Yuyuan through the window, Ren Qi, the leader of the Yuyuan Army, was lying in a wooden house in the woods and sleeping.
"Brother Ren Qi, it's time to eat...eat!" A deep and dull voice came from outside the door.
The person who was speaking seemed to have some aversion to the word "eating", so he paused when mentioning it.
Ren Qi turned over and ignored it.
When they first returned to Yuyuan, all of them enjoyed this kind of life of just eating and not working.
As time went on, their bodies accepted this kind of life, but their spirits began to resist.
So boring.
I just eat every day and can't do anything else.
They are all of authentic peasant origin, and come with the buffs of cattle and horses.
Now, we don’t farm, we don’t work, and we don’t have a war to fight…
Over time, I developed a disgust for this kind of life.
"Brother Ren Qi, come and eat soon. No porridge today. Pancakes with scallions and sauce." The person outside the door added again.
(Shandong pancakes are said to have originated in Linyi during the Three Kingdoms period, and spread to Tianjin and the three northeastern provinces when the people crossed the Guandong Pass. The real historical records come from the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. In the 1960s, a family division contract from the Wanli period was discovered in Dongyanglou Village, Tai'an, which recorded "one pancake and 23 pounds of pancakes.")
Hearing about the pancakes wrapped with green onions and dipped in sauce, Ren Qiteng sat up suddenly.
The status of this combination in the eyes of ordinary people is higher than that of Confucius in the eyes of scholars.
After opening the door, Ren Qi saw a familiar face: Huang Zhenshan.
Although Huang Zhenshan is also one of the leaders, he has some problems with his brain.
Fortunately, he was very brave in battle, so many people were willing to follow him.
"It's better not to drink porridge," Ren Qi sighed, "I've been drinking porridge since I returned to Yuyuan. Three meals a day, and every meal is the same. I'm about to vomit from drinking it."
"Me too," Huang Zhenshan grinned and said, "Brother Zhang Qi told me to tell you that we're going to have pancakes today and we'll go our separate ways after we finish eating."
"What?" Ren Qi's eyes widened: "Why did they break up?"
"I don't know, you go ask him." Huang Zhenshan said and ran away.
Ren Qi followed him with a confused look on his face.
The two soon arrived at an open space in Yuyuan.
At this time, many people gathered in the open space.
They were either sitting on the wood, bleary-eyed, or standing on the ground, yawning and looking listless.
There are many open spaces of various sizes in the Elm Garden. In addition to being used for building houses and making fires for cooking, they are also used for daily training.
At this time, there were dozens of griddles (ào, iron plates used for making pancakes) placed in the middle of the open space, and next to each griddle stood a cook skillfully making pancakes.
The thick batter was poured onto the hot griddle, making a sizzling sound.
With a gentle scrape of the wooden scraper, the batter is spread evenly on the griddle.
After the batter is set, the cook uses a spatula to scoop up the half-cooked pancakes and turn them over.
When the pancake is fully cooked, the cook wraps it with scallions dipped in sauce, rolls it up, and hands it to Ren Qi.
Ren Qi ate while looking for someone: "Have you seen Zhang Qi? I have something to ask him."
"See, he's over there." said a soldier of the Yuyuan Army, pointing to a big tree.
After walking through the crowd and coming under the tree, Ren Qi met Zhang Qi.
Zhang Qi was squatting under a tree eating pancakes. When he saw Ren Qi, he immediately stood up and said, "Brother Ren Qi."
"Yeah," Ren Qi nodded and whispered to him, "Huang Zhenshan said, you said we'll go our separate ways after we finish eating the pancakes?"
"I didn't say that," Zhang Qi shook his head. "What I said was that our food supply is almost gone. If we can't get more food after eating the pancakes, we have to disband, otherwise we will all starve to death."
"How many days will the stored food last?" Ren Qi asked.
"According to the current rate of food consumption, it will take at most three to five days," Zhang Qi replied.
"What's the situation with Fan Ciwu and Wang Jun? Do they have much food in stock?" Ren Qi asked again.
"They should have more food stored than us, but not much more."
"How do you know?"
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