The rise of the prince

Chapter 612 Knowing Already + Benefits of Talking First
Di Zhi was helpless in the face of such a problem.

Although he has fought in wars, he has never been to sea. Even Yan Shen is fortunate that the man named Zhang Shu that the prince found for him is an experienced sea merchant.

He didn't know that he was familiar with the waterway, and he also taught everyone how to overcome seasickness. He asked the seasick soldiers to stand on the deck, bow their waists and bow their heads before standing up several times every once in a while, and let them do it as fast as they could. Run back and forth across the deck, doing it every hour or so.

Finally, after a few days of adaptation, many people gradually relieved themselves, but Yan Shen's eyes were sunken, and he repeatedly complained: "Traveling on a boat is more terrifying than fighting." Everyone laughed.

After slowly settling down, Di Zhi personally went to Zhang Shu to express his thanks.

Zhang Shu was at the bow of the boat, and curiously asked the boatmen to talk about the big ship of the Wangfu. He had seen the big ship of the Wangfu before. After all, the business of the Pingnan Wangfu was spread all over the north and south of the river, and the two major waterways ran everywhere. The ship of the Wangfu, but he has never seen it so close. , so naturally curious slowly.

Di Zhi walked over, cupped his hands and said, "Thank you sir this time, if it weren't for your method, I don't know how many people would have been killed before the war."

"It's nothing, it's all trivial, as long as anyone who travels by sea understands it." He waved his hand and responded with a smile.

Di Zhi was a little puzzled and asked: "But I still don't understand. Riding a horse and taking a sedan chair is also bumpy on weekdays. It is also bumpy when you go to the sea. Why do you feel dizzy and uncomfortable when you ride a horse, but you don't feel dizzy when you ride a boat?"

Zhang Shu said with a smile: "General, this is different, when I first went to sea, I also vomited to death, but later I understood.

The turbulence on the sea is also turbulence, riding a horse and taking a sedan chair is also a bump, but the difference is that you know that you are bumping when riding a horse and a sedan chair, but this vast ocean is different, it is blue everywhere, and it looks the same everywhere. The overall situation in the world is obviously bumpy, but you can't see it, and you don't know that you are bumping, so it will naturally feel uncomfortable after a long time.

I asked them to do this because my father taught me. Since I don’t know the bumps, I should toss them myself, let the body try the bumps earlier, and naturally I won’t get dizzy. "

Di Zhi nodded after hearing this, and fell into deep thought, "You are right. You understand your own situation when you are in a small situation, but once you are in a big situation, it is difficult to understand the environment you are in."

Zhang Shu didn't know why he was so emotional all of a sudden, so he didn't know how to answer the words, so he could only look at the distant sea in embarrassment.

"Mr. Zhang, please take us as far away from the coast as possible on this journey. We will not let people find us when we are close to the mouth of the Haihe River." Di Zhi ordered, he knew that Zhang Shu must have a way. And on the surface, the private trade of salt and iron is prohibited, but it is far from that strict.

Many merchants will sell salt and iron to the north to Xiaguo and the grasslands north of Xiaguo, and to the sea to the east to Waguo, Koryo and other places, because in these places, salt and iron are very valuable, and this practice is against the law. Therefore, the merchants' routes will be as far away from the coast as possible, so as to avoid being discovered by Shibo.

Zhang Shu nodded, "General, don't worry, leave it to me, I know the way."

Di Zhi nodded, and suddenly remembered what he said just now, as if he remembered something, and after thinking about it for a while, he laughed at himself: "Forget it, let's take the shortest path, it doesn't matter if you stay away from the coast or not."

Zhang Shu was stunned for a moment, puzzled, but he didn't ask any more questions. Don't ask if you know what you shouldn't ask.

Di Zhi just thought of the big and small issues just mentioned, and suddenly understood, just as the prince told him, he and the prince will win or lose here.From his point of view, it is good to stay away from the coast and not be discovered, but from a higher perspective, wouldn't the Liao people not know their whereabouts?
The reason why Di Zhi laughed at himself was because he was too naive at first.

After reacting, I realized that someone might have told the Liao people. In some people's opinion, whether Jing Guo wins or Liao Guo wins is far less important than whether the crown prince wins or the prince wins.

In the past, the lord gave way repeatedly for the sake of Jing Guo's victory, but some people didn't care whether Jing Guo could win or not, or in their opinion, the battle with Liao State was far less important than fighting for power and profit.

I'm afraid that when he just set off from the capital, the news of the time when his army went north and the news of where he landed from would have been sent to the Liao people.

Going north to the official road was not easy. After the heavy rain, the ground was covered with mud, and the cart pulling more than a dozen cannons also got stuck in the mud, making it very difficult to walk.

Li Xingzhou was in a hurry to hurry, but there was nothing he could do. Wei Yubai was more concerned about the safety of his father and younger brother, and wished he could fly to Qigouguan.

The day before departure, Li Xingzhou actually encountered a heart-warming event, but he didn't tell anyone about it.

After noon that day, the Privy Council received a note from Yang Wenguang, which was from Wu Zhengqing, the transfer envoy of Chengdu Fu Road. The civil official's note had passed through the Political Affairs Hall, and the military officer's note had passed through the Privy Council, so he saw it first.

After reading it, I was angry and angry, and finally had a clear order for Guanbei's defeat.

At the beginning, in order to allow the north to fight well, he could say that he gave in again and again. He made concessions first, and asked many officials from the six departments to welcome the prince back from Jiangzhou, and then gave in to let the prince go to the court. Fight with peace of mind.

In the end, he compromised again and again in exchange for a big defeat. If he really couldn't beat it, then forget it, and he was unlucky.

It wasn't until Yang Wenguang's participation came that he understood the ins and outs of the matter.

After all, the source was actually Wu Zhengqing, the transfer envoy of Chengdu Fulu who hadn't been noticed before!
In order to put his son's name in the army for military merit, Wu Zhengqing threatened Yang Wenguang with food and grass to do so. , did not receive a single grain from Wu Zhengqing.

This directly caused Yang Wen's Guangxi Army to go deep into Weizhou, and the food and grass gradually began to run out. In order to continue fighting, the flanks of the Central Route Army could only be looted to supplement food and grass.

This move aroused public outrage. Later, when Yelu Dashi led the Liao army to arrive, coupled with his high prestige in Liao, the people of Weizhou who had already arrived at the back of the stable West Route Army responded one after another. The West Route Army was defeated by two sides. .

The West Route Army suffered a disastrous defeat, and the Central Route Army was hit head-on, which meant that this time the cost was heavy, and preparations for the long Northern Expedition failed.

After reading it, Li Xingzhou angrily took Zhezi to meet the emperor, wanting to punish Wu Zhengqing.

As a result, the emperor was not very surprised after seeing it, as if he had known about this for a long time, but said: "The empress told me about this, and someone from the Wu family also came to explain to me, all because of the land of Sichuan and Sichuan, which is more difficult than There was a heavy rain in the north first, and the river swelled and washed away the bridge, resulting in incapable transportation.

Furthermore, the Wu family are relatives of the emperor after all, not outsiders. You must always distinguish between your own family and outsiders.But Wu Zhengqing is indeed responsible for the delay, I will punish him by decree, you don't have to worry about it. "

Li Xingzhou was taken aback for a moment, and then he became discouraged. He finally understood that before the news of the defeat reached the capital, some members of the Wu family rushed to the capital to see him. Well.

Take the first step to make a relationship, and ask the queen to speak for help.

In politics, who speaks first is very important. This is what the so-called preconceptions mean.

In the end, he could only resign in resignation, and the matter was left alone. The emperor specially taught him a few words, asking him to distinguish between his own family and outsiders.

He suddenly realized, yes, this is a monarchy country, the world belongs to the Li family, and the Wu family is the royal brother-in-law, they are their own people, ten Yang Wenguang can't compare.

In desperation, he didn't know how to reply to Yang Wenguang's letter, and finally decided not to write it for the time being. When he went north, he had a chance to talk to Yang Wenguang in person.

"What are you thinking about?" Wei Yubai rode up and handed him a water bottle. After the heavy rain, the summer weather became hot. Li Xingzhou took a sip and said, "I thought about what to do with Weizhou."

"Are you talking about the defenders, or the common people?" Wei Yubai asked.

"Of course it's the common people. With so many firearms, I'm not afraid of city defense at all. The key is the hearts of the people." Speaking of this, he also has a headache. It's useless to fight alone. The history of killing himself if he can fight is gone. The key It is how to win the hearts of the people.

However, the people in the Weizhou area were robbed by Yang Wenguang's army before, and their resentment was high. This is the most difficult problem to deal with.

Otherwise, Yelu Dashi didn't have many soldiers, and it was impossible to keep people to guard Weizhou. It must be local people, but as long as his people want him, there will be a steady stream of defenders willing to defend the city for him.

"Have you encountered such a problem before?" Li Xingzhou asked.

"Naturally, where the border crosses, people's hearts are already floating. The Liao people have the eyes of the Han people, and we also have the eyes of the Khitan people. It's just coercion." Wei Yubai sighed: "People's hearts are unreliable, and people's hearts are even more so. The so-called people's will , some may be true, but most of them are just superficial.

Ten years ago, General Zhong went out for the Northern Expedition, and the momentum was like a broken bamboo. The army of the Liao people retreated steadily, and our Jingguo became the aspiration of the people. Some people revolted in response to General Zhong.

Later, the king of Wu rebelled, and General Zhong was forced to withdraw his troops and return to fight the rebellion, leaving only a small number of troops to guard Zhuo and Yi. "

Li Xingzhou listened intently: "There is such a thing!"

"Of course." Wei Yubai smiled: "In my opinion, most people in the world are stupid, and there are only a few smart ones. These smart people don't care about the world's family and country positions. What kind of excuses can capture people's hearts and unite everyone? , They just say something, most people just follow the trend blindly, if you want to cure it, you have to be ruthless and let them be afraid of you." She said firmly.

Li Xingzhou nodded silently and took down her suggestion. The army was still marching north one after another. The new army was all lightly packed, and with mules and horses to carry supplies, it would naturally move faster than ordinary troops.

On June 22, the army arrived at Changping County at the foot of the Taihang Mountains. Li Xingzhou had only been to this place in the twelfth lunar month of last year. , the deserted scene is too lively.

The army didn't delay for long, only stayed in Changping for one night, and set off the next day, going north of Kongcangling.

Because the official road on the east side of Taihang was blocked, we had to take the more difficult road to the west.

On the mountain, the twelve cannons became the biggest burden. The big ones weighing several hundred catties were not easy to carry. Before, they were drawn by horses on flat roads, and they were easy to walk on the cannon carriages. question.

Because of the bad roads, the horse couldn't pull it anymore, and people needed to push it from time to time, which slowed down the progress.

In this way, I originally planned to arrive in Taiyuan on June 27, but it was not until the afternoon of June 29 that I saw the city wall of Taiyuan Mansion from a distance.

Wanyanli led more than 100 Jurchen warriors to wait on the south bank of the Yu River. No matter how many of them there are these days, as soon as they approach, the Liao people will immediately shrink back into the city and stay in the city.

This gave him more courage. A few days ago, he only brought more than 100 people, robbed a village outside the city, killed the men, and kidnapped more than a dozen women. As a result, the Liao army still did not dare to come out. It seems that He was scared by his big gold warrior.

Wanyanli was even more proud, so he asked Wanyanyun to go down to the city to yell at Yelu Dashi and the new Liao Emperor Yeludun in the city, but the Liao people still didn't respond, but bypassed them and continued to send troops outside the city .

At first there were only dozens of people, and later there was a group of more than a hundred people. He was taken aback. Could it be that the Liao people wanted to outflank them?

Suspicious, he quickly retreated to the northwest to the south bank of the Yu River, and sent his younger brother Wan Yanyun to inquire about the news. If the situation was not right, they would immediately withdraw to Juyongguan. After all, there are more than 2 Liao people in Nanjing. military.

Just when he was waiting impatiently, his younger brother Wan Yanyun finally galloped back with a dozen people on horseback.

"What's the matter?" Before the horse stopped, he grabbed his brother's sleeve and asked.

"It's okay, it's the Jing people. The Jing people are coming again. A businessman brought news to Yelu Dashi that the Jing people are going to attack from the sea."

"maritime?"

"That's right, it's going up the Haihe River, heading north from the Bohai Sea, and attacking the city of Nanjing, so the Liao people are sending troops to the southwest along the Wuding River to block the river, and have already sent them several times." Wan Yanyun said,
Wan Yanli remained motionless after hearing this, and slowly laughed, "The people of Jingguo are not stupid, right? How many people can come in such a wide river? This is not sending them to death."

"I said yes. Could it be that the Jingguo merchants deliberately lied to them, but Yelu Dashi completely believed it. Now more than 1000 troops have been added to the southwest of the Yongding River, all of which are used to block the river and bring a large number of bows and crossbows."

"As long as the people of Jingguo are not fools, they won't use such a death-defying style of play. Yelu Dashi is stupid."

"Do you really believe what they say?" Xiao Qian asked the tall man opposite him in the backyard of the Nanjing City Government Office.

Yelu Dashi didn't answer right away. After he defeated Jing Guo's army and put the situation on hold, the first thing he did when he entered Nanjing was to welcome back the little emperor Yelu Dun who had fled north, and put him under house arrest.

"Believe it." He was very sure, "If only one or two people came to me to tell the secret and ask for a reward, I still don't believe it, but it is the seventh one this morning. Do you think it is a coincidence?"

"What if it's Jing Guo's scheme?"

"What kind of strategy can there be? Even if I send 1000 people to block the waterway, it will still not affect the defense of the city. It is meaningless for them to tell such lies." Yelu Dashi said seriously: "It should be an internal struggle in Jingguo. Kill this army from the sea.

This is exactly what I want, the people of Jingguo don't want to win battles, they only want to fight for power and profit, and frame their colleagues, so I will win the battle! "

"I will ask people to bring the best light crossbows, catapults, fire and oil, and block the water in Yangcun area, where the river is the narrowest, so that the Jingguo people's fleet will be sunk if they can't reach Nanjing. They If you don’t want to win the battle, I’ll be them!” Yelu Dashi said confidently.

(End of this chapter)