Five Dynasties River Mountains Fengyue

Chapter 477 Paper Tiger
Emperor Shi stared at the chessboard in front of him intently, full of ambition.

Shi Huangdi gritted his teeth, abandoned his son and surrendered, looking at the old man Fan Zhi who was sitting across from him, his face was very foul.

Although Emperor Shi hasn't played chess for long, he is extremely smart, has a strong comprehension ability, and is very good at chess. He has never lost against others, and he has never won against Fan Zhi, so he is naturally very dissatisfied.

Does this old man have no EQ at all?Let the emperor win and die.

"Fan Gong, you are very good at chess." Shi Congyun said awkwardly, wanting to make up for his defeat.

"It's because the official chess skills are shallow." The old man said directly.

Emperor Shi wished he could shut his mouth, "Let's talk about the northern affairs, this game of chess is heresy, there is nothing to talk about."

"The veteran also feels the same way. The officials should pay attention to the world's major affairs. From now on, the veteran will not be asked to play chess."

Emperor Shi coughed twice, he was thick-skinned, and directly ignored the words: "Li Hanchao said that the cattle and sheep from the south of Liao Kingdom have been sent over, and I sent people to hand them over, but they gathered a lot of people on the border, maybe because they knew We're using troops in the South."

Fan Zhi stroked his beard, and immediately became serious, "This old man has gone to the Ministry of War and the Privy Council to verify this matter, and also discussed it with Duke Luqiu.

Officials and veterans thought they were just bluffing. "

Emperor Shi poured tea for him, filled it up for himself, and asked, "How do you know that?"

"Before they were still secretly dispatching troops, and Wu Desi's spies said that everyone in the Liao Kingdom knew that their lord was obsessed with hunting and ignored political affairs, and had always been in the northern grasslands.

If they are dispatching the army to the south, the movement will definitely not be small.

If the army from the north really came, they just wanted to take advantage of the fire to loot and send troops south.

If that's the case, they will go to war unless they change the king and re-gather people's hearts.Their lord has been ignoring the government on the grassland, and after two previous disastrous defeats, the minister judged that he could not grasp the situation, and dared not leave the vicinity of the northern court.

Once the troops are sent out, I am afraid that the Liao Kingdom will become chaotic by itself. "

Shi Congyun listened quietly, Fan Zhi was not that good at fighting, but in government affairs this old man was definitely the best one, except for his bad temper.

"He usurped the throne by soldiers and horses, and he couldn't make the local surrender in the country. If he wins the battle against the south, the situation will definitely improve. But he was once defeated by the officials in Guanbei, and once in the east of the river. The big defeat, the loss of soldiers and generals twice, the embarrassment and loss of ground, those who are dissatisfied with him must be more and more unable to suppress him.

So I deduced that he didn't dare to send troops. The ones to the south were at most Xiao Siwen and others' troops from the South Courtyard, just pretending. He probably knew that we were using troops against the south and wanted to take the opportunity to negotiate some conditions. "

After hearing his words, Emperor Shi fell into deep thought.

The reason why he likes to discuss with Fan Zhi on this kind of vacillating and undecided major matters, happens to be that this old man is a person who deliberately loses to him in chess, not someone who will flatter and flatter him. people.

His thoughts were actually similar to Fan Zhi's, but he didn't dare to be sure, because if he misjudged the situation, the main force would be in the south of the Yangtze River, so he wanted to hear what others thought.

"There are two main forces in the north. The Hedong Army to the west of Taihang Mountain, led by Xiang Gong and Li Jiye, has about 3 people. The Guanbei Army to the east of Taihang Mountain, guarded by Li Hanchao, Guo Jin, and Murong Yanzhao, has more than [-] troops. People." Emperor Shi bent his middle finger, and tapped his knuckles on the white jade tabletop, as if speaking to Fan Zhi, or talking to himself.

In the end, Emperor Shi seemed to have made up his mind, "They thought this would scare me. Is this the one who was scared too much?"

Fan Zhi didn't speak, but listened attentively. The courtiers could raise their opinions, but the emperor had to make the decision.

"If there was no Yanmen Pass before, I might have hesitated. Now that Yanmen Pass is in hand, they still can't see the situation clearly."

Shi Congyun was determined to take a gamble, "Let Hedong Xianggong strengthen the defenses around Yanmen Pass in the north, send five thousand elite troops to reinforce Guanbei, let Murong Yanzhao lead the army north, and show them some color."

Fan Zhi just listened carefully without interrupting.

Emperor Shi understood Xiao Siwen's threat, but unfortunately he would not give up the initiative. If the Northwestern Han Dynasty was still there, and Taiyuan and Yanmenguan were not in his hands, he might indeed have to compromise, and those cattle and sheep would be abandoned.

But now that Shanxi is in his hands, Yanmen Pass in the north is strong against the enemy, Taiyuan is in his hands, and there is no worries in the west, how could he compromise with Xiao Siwen?

What's more, as Fan Zhi said, he also judged that the gathering of troops on the border to exert pressure this time was probably Xiao Siwen's and other Southern Institute's own assertions, and they wanted to use this to exert pressure and gain benefits.

They must not be used to them. In any case, if conditions permit, Emperor Shi will never allow the strategic initiative to be handed over to the enemy, even if he takes a risk, he will try.

Emperor Shi stayed Fan Zhi in the palace for lunch, and then let him leave. Before leaving, he said: "Fan Gong is 59 this year, and he is not young. You should eat less salt. If you can't taste it, you can't taste it." , Eating too much is not good for you."

Fan Zhi is not young, and when I asked him to eat just now, he felt that the dishes made of flower pistils were too bland, so he asked someone to give him salt. Many elderly people like to eat heavy salt because of their degraded sense of taste, but this will increase the burden on the kidneys and cause Many diseases such as high blood pressure have overwhelmed the degraded body functions.

Although the old man Fan Zhi was annoying, Emperor Shi did not expect him to die: "If you leave, my chess skills will run rampant in the world in the future, and there will be no rivals. Wouldn't it be lonely?"

The old man paused, his face expressionless, he didn't know what he was thinking, and after a while he handed over his hand: "The old minister respectfully obeys the orders of the officials."

Emperor Shi nodded: "If you are not feeling well, you can come to the palace to see the imperial physician yourself after the next court, and only talk about it if you have nothing to do."

"Thank you."

"Go back." Emperor Shi waved his hand.

In Dongyue, the war in the south is progressing smoothly. It has been more than two months since the troops were dispatched. The four armies are progressing smoothly. They each defeated the local armed forces and approached Jiangning. Emperor Shi expected to encircle the capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty in the spring of next year and force Li Yu to surrender.

It's just that during the Southern War, other problems followed one after another. First, Wu Desi arrested a dozen spies from the Liao Kingdom who were inquiring about artillery workshops by the Bianhe River.

Then Li Hanchao reported that the Liao Kingdom was gathering troops in the south of Youzhou City at the juncture of moving the tribute cattle and sheep, and Chen Bing went to the north. I don't know what they want to do.

At this time, 2 of the forbidden army were in the northern border defense line, more than [-] were in Jiangnan, [-] were in Heyang, more than [-] were in Guanzhong and Luoyang, and the rest were guarding Daliang.

Under such a situation, Emperor Shi resolutely decided to meet the tough, and transferred the elite from the west of Taihang Mountain to Sanguan, south of Youzhou, so that Murong Yanzhao led the army to take the initiative to go north to see what the Liao Kingdom wanted to do. He was moved and dared not move .They are really tough, or paper tigers.

Emperor Shi and Fan Zhi had the same judgment. The Liao Kingdom was a paper tiger at this time. They assembled the army because they knew about the war in the south and wanted to take the opportunity to bargain and negotiate terms.

But Emperor Shi didn't plan to negotiate terms with the paper tiger, he was going to let the Guanbei army go to negotiate with Xiao Siwen.

(End of this chapter)