Bingzhou's 50,000-strong army left Jinyang and marched towards Yecheng. Three days later, they crossed the Taihang Mountains via the Fu caliber and entered the Changshan Kingdom of Jizhou. At this time, Yuan Shang's letter was also delivered. After Yuan Mai read it immediately, his face was ashen and he said nothing. "What did it say in the letter?" Seeing his brother-in-law's unkind expression, Zhao Yun asked in a deep voice, thinking that the situation was unpredictable again. "This despicable villain Yuan Shang threatened me with Ah Ying's mother in his letter, asking me to send troops to help him attack Yuan Tan, otherwise he would kill his mother. I think the mother and son really have the same virtues, and they have their own mother. There must be a son!" Yuan Mai cursed bitterly. Zhang He met Zheng when they were in Yecheng and had a good impression of this humble lady. After hearing what Yuan Mai said, he was also angry with her: "Yuan Shang's mother and son's crimes are so obvious that heaven and man are outraged. Zhang He is willing to lead the cavalry as the vanguard." , marching day and night, approaching the city of Ye County! " "No, my mother is in prison. If we attack Ye County by force, even if we can break the city, this evil woman will definitely kill my mother before the city is broken!" Buying looked solemn and frowned to express his doubts. Xu Shu, who was standing next to him, smiled slightly and said calmly: "I do have an idea. Is it possible to do this with your lord's advice?" "Yuan Zhi just said it doesn't matter!" Yuan Mai handed over his hand and listened attentively. "This is the time for the think tank to show its talents, but unfortunately there are still relatively few military advisors around him; Ju Shou and Tian Feng are stationed in Hanoi and Jinyang, so they cannot join the army. The only top think tank around him is Xu Shu, although Zhuge Jin is good at negotiation. In terms of strategy, it is lacking. It would be great if Sima Yi was willing to become an official. This guy has been pretending to be ill for nearly two years. I wonder if he is tempted now? I will take some time to give this guy a good beating. He is indeed a donkey. If he is not led away, he will go backwards. No wonder Cao Cao sent someone to tie him up in Xuchang. I have been treating him like a corporal for two years. If this guy is still ungrateful, don't blame me for being rude! As Xu Shu rode his horse slowly, he explained his strategy: "Since Yuan Shang invited us to send troops to help, the young master will use his plan to trick Yuan Shang into trusting him. Let him mistakenly think that we are sending troops to help him, lowering the The defenders of Yecheng were vigilant, and then their troops came to the city! " "Well, what a good trick" Yuan Mai slammed his riding whip. Agree with Xu Shu's strategy. "This plan works!" Look at how late it is. Send an order to find an open place to set up camp. He ordered people to prepare wine and food, and entertained Yuan Shang's envoy happily. After he was full of wine and food. He said: "You will rush to Pingyuan immediately tomorrow and report to the third brother that Yuan Mai is sending troops this time just to help him deal with Yuan Tan. Let him hold off the Qingzhou soldiers first. After a few days, our Bingzhou army can join in." Let¡¯s attack Yuan Tan together on the battlefield!¡± ¡°Thank you Yuan Bingzhou!¡± The envoy was overjoyed to receive the reward and went to rest. After the envoy left, Yuan Mai ordered Zhu Ling to prepare pen and ink for him. He took up the pen and wrote a letter. His words were extremely humble and he said that he must obey his brother's instructions. After he finished writing, he handed it to Zhu Ling and ordered him to deliver it to the envoy and send it to him tomorrow. Give it to Yuan Shang to numb his psychology. As soon as Zhu Ling left, a soldier came to report: "There is a man asking to be seen outside the camp. He claims to be the lord's spy in Yecheng. Do you want to summon him?" "Ohcould it be Cao Qian?" Yuan Mai touched him. He lowered his sparse and strong beard, muttered to himself, waved his hand and ordered: "Recruit him in!" A moment later, under the leadership of the soldiers, the man who claimed to be the Yecheng spy walked into the big tent, it was Cao Qian. Since the siege of Yijing last spring, Cao Qian discovered the place where Zhao Yun was imprisoned, drew a siege map, and successfully rescued general Zhao Zilong. Since then, he has won Yuan Mai's appreciation and asked for help from Zhen Yao's men. Asked him to come over and let him be his direct informant. After Yuan Shao became critically ill, Yuan Mai gave Cao Qian the task of spying on the military situation in Ye County, and ordered him to lead a dozen scouts to secretly engage in espionage work in Ye City and report the situation in Ye City to him at any time. Cao Qian came to look for the army this time and came to report the news. He ordered Zhu Ling to serve tea, let the tired Cao Qian moisten his throat, and then asked: "What's going on in Yecheng now?" Cao Qian put down the tea bowl, cupped his hands and said, "Returning to my lord, General Wen Chou has been sent to prison. The soldiers and horses were also captured by Yuan Shang. A few days ago, Yuan Shang led 50,000 troops out of the city to fight Yuan Tan. There are still 25,000 defenders in Ye County, led by his uncle and nephew Shen Pei! General Wen Chou has been captured?" Yuan Mai took a breath. He originally wanted to rely on Wen Chou's support to easily capture Yecheng, but now it seems that this road has been blocked, "It is indeed an open gun deal. Hide, it¡¯s hard to guard against hidden arrows!¡± "How is Mrs. Zheng doing?" Yuan Mai asked, rubbing her temples gently to try to stay as awake as possible. Cao Qian cupped his hands and replied: "Returning to my lord, it is said that Mrs. Zheng has been thrown into the dungeon, probably with General Wen!" "Asshole!" After hearing this, Yuan Mai was furious, slapped the case and cursed: "This Liu family and her son What a bastard. I thought they put my mother under house arrest in the backyard, but she was actually put in a dungeon. They treated a weak woman so viciously, so cruel and cruel! " "Listen I heard that Mrs. Zheng is in the dungeon. It's a lot of hardship!" Looking at Yuan Mai's angry face, Cao Qian was a little scared, but the scout's duty was to report truthfully, so he hesitated for a while and reported the matter truthfully. "This pair of vicious mother and son dared to abuse Ah Ying's mother. Sooner or later I will kill them with my own hands!" Yuan Mai stood up and paced back and forth in the tent, swearing an oath bitterly. At this moment, the scene at Yuan Shao's birthday banquet came to mind. No one dared to let him sit down, but Zheng stood up. As the saying goes, "a drop of water should be repaid by a spring of water." As a prince, how can I let my benefactor suffer in the dungeon? This stepmother must be rescued at all costs. Turning his eyes, after thinking for a moment, he asked: "What is the attitude of the civil and military officials in the city? Do they all support Yuan Shang's monopoly on power?" Cao Qian replied: "According to the humble survey, half support it. The other half is ambiguous, but under the pressure of Yuan Shang's mother and son, He is so powerful and cruel that even those who don¡¯t support him dare not stand up to oppose him. ¡°Can we mobilize some noble officials from the city to support us?¡± Yuan Mai asked. Cao Qian shook his head: "The judges are very guarded. They have deployed a large number of informants around the residences of civil and military officials. If there is any abnormality, they will immediately suppress it. It is estimated that no one can start the incident from the city to respond!" After listening to Cao Qian's report, Yuan Mai comforted him and ordered Zhu Ling to bring out some coins and give them to Cao Qian as funds, and then continued to return to Yecheng to spy on the news. But there is important information. We must try to send him out of the city. Cao Qian received the funds and left with his orders. After Cao Qian left, Yuan Mai fell into deep thought. He was thinking hard about a two-pronged strategy that could break the city and rescue the Zheng family safely. Xu Shu¡¯s plan is good. But it can only paralyze Yuan Shang and judge him for a while. When his troops came to the city. Shen Pei will inevitably close the city gate tightly and not let any of his soldiers enter the city. If you attack the city by force, the judge will definitely see through his deception. Before the city gate was breached, Liu Jiao, a wicked woman, would definitely kill Mrs. Zheng first to vent her hatred. "How can we break the city and keep Ah Ying's mother safe?" Yuan Mai held his head in his hands and thought hard. Looking at the candlelight swaying back and forth in front of him, Yuan Mai suddenly had an idea, slapped his thigh and said: "Yes!" Didn't the Kongming Lantern invented by Zhuge Liang use the principle of a hot air balloon to make the lantern fly into the sky? There are high mountains five or six miles north of Yecheng. If someone makes a batch of large Kongming lanterns, and under the cover of night, let the soldiers ride on the Kongming lanterns from the mountains and land in the city of Ye County, firstly, they can respond from within the city, and secondly, they can You can take advantage of the city's unpreparedness to capture the prison and protect Zheng's safety. This is a two-pronged strategy. "Zhu Ling, call Ma Deheng, I have a task for him!" Zhu Ling took the order and left. A moment later, the yawning Ma Jun came to the commander's tent and saluted, "What are your orders, Lord Huanjun?" "Deheng, come and sit next to the table. I'll discuss something with you!" After Ma Jun sat down beside him, Yuan Mai explained his thoughts and told Ma Jun that he wanted him to do it for him. Make a batch of lights that can carry people flying, and then launch an air raid on Ye County. Of course, Yuan Mai would never tell him that this kind of lantern was called "Kongming Lantern", but called it "Sky Lantern". Although Ma Jun is extremely talented in creation, after hearing Yuan Mai's idea, he did not applaud like before, but looked dubious. After all, for people living in this era, it is really a fantasy for humans to fly into the sky. "Is it possible to let the lantern carry people flying? The flame keeps burning, it would be strange if the lantern is not burned!" Yuan Mai looked confident and said confidently: "There is no other way to enter the city now. You can only treat a dead horse as a living horse! Can you give it a try? Your craftsmen are strong in manufacturing. Get them together immediately and make the 'sky lantern' overnight!" The so-called "craftsman camp" is Yuan. A team of about 500 people was built specially for Ma Jun, composed of carpenters, painters, blacksmiths, craftsmen, masons, papermakers and other craftsmen; Ma Jun was in charge.Tuen Cao is responsible for the invention and manufacturing of various high-tech products; epoch-making supplies such as thunder carts, curved shaft plows, double-sided stirrups, horseshoes, etc. are all made by this team. As soon as he said it, Yuan Mai led the way, Ma Jun and Zhu Ling followed, and went straight to the place where the "Artisan Camp" was stationed. It is already Xu time. Many craftsmen have taken off their clothes and gone to bed after working around for a day. The important task of coaxing people up fell on Zhu Ling's shoulders. "It's snowing, it's snowing, get up quickly and get your cotton-padded clothes!" Zhu Ling shouted randomly from tent to tent, causing the dazed craftsmen to quarrel. They all muttered to themselves, it's such a big summer, if it really snows. , which is really great! Now the whole camp gathered together, and under the leadership of Ma Jun, started making "sky lanterns" according to Yuan Mai's instructions. First of all, paper is needed. Fortunately, Mi Heng's "Mobile Newspaper Office" accompanied the army, so the army carried a large amount of paper. Although the size was not large enough, it could be glued together with paste for use. The paper of this period was relatively rough and thick, far from as delicate as the 21st century, but it was very suitable for making Kongming lanterns. The carpenter found bamboo strips, which were originally used to make arrows, but could only be used temporarily as an emergency, and used these bamboos to make a frame; the blacksmith found iron wire and connected the bamboo strips with the paper. Everyone performed their duties, and after working for several hours, they finally made a dozen "sky lanterns". Seeing that the "sky lantern" conceived by Yuan Mai finally came out, Ma Jun was still skeptical about its ability: "This lantern is quite beautiful, but can it really carry people flying?" Yuan Mai is not sure either, although I played hot air balloons several times in my previous life, but they were not the same thing after all. One relied on high-tech hydrogen to fly, and the other only relied on the simplest principle of hot air. "I'm not sure, let's try it on a hill!" Yuan Mai and some craftsmen left the camp with a huge sky lantern with a diameter of one foot, found a hill nearby, and climbed up together. Although it is midsummer, the wind on the mountain is really strong. In order to increase the heat, Ma Jun suggested using rosin instead of the candles Yuan Mai said. In comparison, the heat generated by rosin in a short period of time is far better than that of candles. A sky lantern was burning. It was a question of who could try it first. The craftsmen were so scared that they backed away. After all, this was no joke. If the lantern flew into the air and fell, it would be weird if the whole person didn't fall into pieces! "I invented this sky lantern, let me do it as an experiment!" Yuan Mai rolled up his sleeves and prepared to get into the bamboo basket under the lantern and try to fly. Seeing that the young master actually wanted to test it himself, Zhu Linton became anxious: "I'll come, I'll come. If the young master has some shortcomings, it would be strange for the ladies to take my life. It's better for me to do it!" After saying this, he couldn't help but say it. He got into the bamboo basket and never came out again. Since Zhu Ling is rushing to share the risk for him, Yuan Mai has no choice but to let him, after all, his own life is more important, although this idea is a bit selfish! As the rosin burned, the paper lamp cap contained more and more heat, and began to float slowly off the ground, one foot, two feet, three feet, half a foot "Wow the lantern really flies. It¡¯s up, it¡¯s amazing!¡± Looking at the slowly rising sky lanterns, the craftsmen on the top of the mountain exclaimed in unison, really not believing their eyes. "Push the lantern out!" Following Yuan Mai's order, Ma Jun and several craftsmen pushed the floating sky lantern down the mountain. A gust of cool wind blew past, blowing the sky lantern out. It was more than fifty feet above the ground, floating in the direction of the camp. The wind didn't stop, and the lantern didn't stop. It flew farther and farther, and in a short time, it crossed the camp. Flying to a small stream. Zhu Ling followed Yuan Mai's instructions, extinguished the burning rosin, and poked a gap in the lantern with a dagger. The heat gradually dissipated, and the sky lantern slowly fell to the ground. "WowI'm flying, I'm flying, I'm really flying!" After landing, Zhu Ling was so excited that he forgot to put the Kongming Lantern back on his back and danced towards the big tree three miles away. The battalion ran, shouting and yelling. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature. The novels will be better and updated faster!