As early as when Feng Ye captured Shangfengzhai, Yanzhou City had already fortified its walls, cleared the fields, stored food supplies and increased troops, and prepared for siege. That's why the city remained peaceful after Feng's army laid siege to it.

However, Taiyuan had just been defeated and 30,000 soldiers had been lost. At this moment, the hearts of the Yanzhou soldiers might not be as stable as their city walls.

As soon as Feng's army was defeated, Feng Ye summoned his generals to discuss the matter and decided to attack Yanzhou as soon as possible.

This time is different.

They stayed in the suburbs of Taiyuan for four months, constantly relaxing the enemy's vigilance, secretly preparing for war, using a series of tricks, using their own soldiers and camps as bait, and finally succeeded in luring the enemy into an ambush. That was because the troops of Taiyuan and Yanzhou were too large. As long as they held their ground, a head-on attack would be tantamount to hitting a rock with an egg, so they could only wait for the right time.

But the situation in Yanzhou requires them to strike while the iron is hot. They won the first battle and lost 30,000 troops in Taiyuan. The enemy is weak and we are strong, and morale is high. Luo Ruoxin suffered a great loss and was afraid, so he dared not fight rashly again. If they waited until Taiyuan recovered, they would have missed the opportunity.

Therefore, Feng Ye first rewarded people according to their merits and provided relief to the wounded and dead, especially those who risked their lives like Cao Yu and made great contributions, to greatly boost morale.

In the past, the Feng family army followed Feng Jianping wholeheartedly. The most important reason was that rewards and punishments were clearly defined. The soldiers left their hometowns and went through life and death to follow their leader. What they wanted was nothing more than glory and wealth, or at least to be able to support their families. Talking about family and country with a bunch of mostly uneducated common people and rough generals was all bullshit. Only real money and promotions could make them kill the enemy and sacrifice their lives.

Feng Ye learned all the true teachings of Feng Jianping and was generous in rewarding, which made the whole army excited. Those who got rewards were overjoyed, and those who didn't get rewards were eager to get more heads in the battle of Yanzhou. But at the same time, he also punished a group of soldiers who ignored their command in order to seize the opportunity when ambushing deserters, as a warning to others.

The morale of the three armies had reached its peak, and they should make a concerted effort. Feng Ye ordered an attack on the city within two days.

Attacking a city is a head-on confrontation, using mountains of corpses and seas of blood to knock down the enemy's city gates. There is not much strategy to speak of. Although it is a bad strategy, it is also a helpless strategy.

Feng Ye had about 110,000 soldiers, 10,000 in Shangfeng Village and 20,000 in Shouying. The force for attacking the city was exactly multiple of that of Yanzhou. According to the military strategy, if the force is doubled, it should be divided. So they should think of a way to lure the soldiers of Yanzhou out of the city and then divide the troops to defeat them. However, Yanzhou had planned to hold its ground. After the disastrous defeat in the ambush in Taiyuan, Yanzhou would never leave the city no matter what.

Although attacking the city with such a force would inevitably result in heavy losses and the outcome would be unpredictable, being able to force Taiyuan to be cautious and not dare to send troops rashly to help was already the best situation they could achieve at the moment.

However, if Luo Ruoxin took a gamble and led the Taiyuan army to attack them when they were besieging the city, they would be attacked from both sides and there was no way they could not be defeated.

The generals were divided over this. Half thought that they should fight quickly and try to capture Yanzhou in one battle. The other half thought that even though Luo Ruoxin had suffered a defeat, he would never sit idly by and watch Yanzhou be captured, and would definitely send troops when they attacked the city.

Feng Ye was naturally worried about this, but if he didn't attack now, it would be more difficult in the future.

Yan Sikong also agreed that we should attack the city as quickly as possible. If we delay for too long, not only will the Taiyuan troops have time to recover, but our army's high morale will also plummet. If we want to capture Yanzhou, now is the time.

But how to prevent Luo Ruoxin from sending troops when they were attacking the city, or in other words, how to still capture the city if Luo Ruoxin did send troops, was the key issue they were discussing at this time.

After the meeting, Feng Ye and Yan Sikong had their meal in the tent.

Feng Ye would occasionally put some meat into Yan Si's empty bowl: "At the moment, it seems that there is no better way except to divide the troops."

Yan Sikong said: "If we can deceive Luo Ruoxin and make him think that we are using the same old trick again and want to lure him to send troops with Yanzhou, then we can at least buy some time for our army."

"Although Luo Ruoxin is cautious, he won't be so easily fooled this time. If what you said is true, even if he can fool him temporarily, it will only delay some time. He knows very well the consequences of Yanzhou being captured, so even if he risks being ambushed, he will not stand by and watch him die."

"The longer we delay him, the more chances our army has of winning." Yan Sikong put down his chopsticks and frowned slightly, "But even if we win this battle, I don't know how many people will die."

"It is very likely that after this battle, we will not be able to attack Taiyuan again in a short period of time, regardless of whether we win or lose." Feng Ye picked up a piece of meat and put it to Yan Sikong's lips, "You have only eaten a few bites. You can't be hungry at any time."

Yan Sikong opened his mouth and ate it obediently. He smiled slightly and said, "I'm not hungry, but I don't have such a good appetite like you two brothers." As he said that, he kicked Feng Hun's butt with his foot.

Feng Hun had just eaten half a sheep and dozed off greedily without even lifting his eyelids.

"If you don't eat enough, how can you have the strength to fight?" Feng Ye stuffed him with another mouthful of rice. "You are so thin because you eat too little."

"I'm just thin, not weak." Yan Sikong picked up the bowl again, "I'll eat it."

Feng Ye tapped his head and said, "You're asking me to eat a meal, as if I'm forcing you. You've never experienced a life where your food and fodder were robbed and you had to eat tree bark for a whole month. Otherwise, you would cherish every meal in the army. When you're on the march, you can't be sure that you'll have nothing to eat next time."

"That makes sense." Yan Sikong took a big bite of food and blinked at him, "Is the Wolf King satisfied?"

Feng Ye curled his lips and smiled: "If you and I can eat three meals like this every day, I will be satisfied."

At this time, the guard asked for an audience outside the tent. After entering the tent, he knelt and handed over a letter: "Wolf King, Yunnan asks for help."

Feng Ye and Yan Sikong both looked gloomy.

Feng Ye snatched the letter, scanned it quickly, and said in a deep voice: "Chen Yi said that Zhongqing has been attacked twice, and both sides have suffered heavy losses. He is worried that it will be lost."

"Does the letter mention King Ning?" Yan Sikong took the letter from him and said as he read it, "When I was in Yunnan, I sent envoys to ask for a marriage for the King of Chu. King Ning clearly had the intention of marriage, so why didn't he..." After seeing the last part, he was stunned, "Dead, dead?"

"A prince was choked to death by a date kernel. Can you believe it?!" Feng Ye slammed the table.

The guards were so frightened that they fell to the ground, knelt down silently and retreated.

"Maybe he was murdered." Yan Sikong took a deep breath, "Prince Ning obviously doesn't want to follow the King of Chu in rebellion."

"What should we do now? We have held back the Central Plains' troops and no longer have the energy to help Chen Yi." Feng Ye narrowed his eyes, "But if he loses..."

Yan Sikong calmed down. "Zhongqing is surrounded by dangerous mountains and rivers. It is a natural barrier against the enemy. It will not be so easy to break through. The letter also said that both sides suffered heavy losses. The imperial court failed to capture the city twice. I am afraid that they have become afraid. I think Zhongqing can still hold on."

"Maybe we can right now, but the court can no longer afford three-pronged war. The most likely place to be conquered now is Yunnan. What if the court sends more troops and vows to quell the rebellion of the King of Chu? We are thousands of miles away and cannot reach them." Feng Ye was feeling restless for a moment. Chen Yi was an important chess piece for him to control the other princes. With Chen Yi around, all the wars were still the Chen family's family affairs. The other princes just stood by and watched, and most of them even wanted Chen Yi to be the emperor. But if Chen Yi failed, he would be besieged by the other princes.

Yan Sikong held the letter in his hand, his eyes changing with unpredictable emotions: "Don't worry about this matter, I will find a way. Now you have to go all out and capture Yanzhou. Once you capture Yanzhou, the court will be scared and will gather troops in the Central Plains. Zhongqing only needs to hold on for a few more months, and the crisis will be resolved."

Feng Ye clenched his fists, his eyes gleaming with ferocity: "Yanzhou, I am determined to take it!"

——

Yan Sikong wrote a letter to Prince Ning and Chen Yi respectively in Feng Ye's tone.

The letter to Prince Ning was to persuade him to join hands with him and help the King of Chu ascend the throne. The letter was full of righteousness, coercion and inducement. Although Prince Ning did not openly rebel, he was secretly colluding with the King of Chu, and the court must have known about it. At this time, Prince Ning was dead, and the situation of Prince Ning's son was very embarrassing. Yan Sikong did not expect that a letter could persuade Prince Ning to rebel, but it could at least make him cautious and not add insult to injury to Chen Mi. He ordered someone to rush the letter and deliver it secretly at 800 km.

As for the letter to Chen Yi, he sent his assassins to pretend to be captured, because this letter needed to fall into the hands of the generals who were attacking Zhongqing. The letter contained a lot of half-truths and half-false information, such as Feng Ye's plan to send his trusted general Que Wang to rescue Yunnan after conquering Yanzhou, and another example was that Prince Ning had already accepted Chen Yi's betrothal gift, married his beloved daughter, and was secretly recruiting soldiers and buying horses to help Chen Yi. Whether the court believed the content of this letter or not, it would at least make Prince Ning suspicious.

After sending these two letters, Yan Sikong wrote another short message using the code word agreed upon with Chen Yi, reassuring Chen Yi that he must defend the city and that he was trying his best to help him out of his predicament. Yan Sikong asked Ali to send this letter through She Jun's channel.

Although he was worried about Chen Yi's safety, Yan Sikong knew that the most important thing right now was to capture Yanzhou. Only if Feng Ye delayed the war in the Central Plains would the imperial court not drive its troops and chariots to Yunnan. Once Feng Ye captured Taiyuan, the door to the Central Plains would be wide open and the imperial city would be within reach, the imperial court would no longer care about the King of Chu and would definitely concentrate its forces on dealing with the Wolf King.

But the Wolf King at that time was probably already invincible.