marquis of jingan

Chapter 999
The news that the third prince of the Northern Qi Dynasty supervised the country quickly spread from Yandu, and spread to Xuzhou city through the inner guards.

At this time, Shen Yi had opened the city gate for more than ten days.

Zhou Shizhong naturally couldn't bear it for half a month. During this half month, the Confederate Army attacked Xuzhou City five or six times.

However, the Huai'an army was flexible in its use of troops. If there were many people in Qi, he would close the city gates. If there were few people in Qi, the soldiers of the Huai'an army would take the initiative to go out of the city to meet the enemy.

In the past half a month, only Xue Wei led his troops out to kill two battles, killing 300 enemies.

On this day, Shen Yi was still in Zhizhou Yamen, dealing with some military affairs. Jiang Sheng led a middle-aged man in his early 30s to Master Shen.

"My lord, the inner guard's messenger."

The middle-aged man immediately saluted Shen Yi with his fists in his hands: "I've seen Minister Shen!"

Shen Yi looked up, then put down the brush in his hand, and asked with a smile, "Where did the messenger come from?"

The middle-aged man lowered his head, took out a document from his sleeve, put both hands in front of Shen Yi, and said: "Return to Shen Yilang, I come from Yandu with a humble job."

Shen Yi was thoughtful, got up and took the document, and asked, "What happened to Yandu?"

"Yes."

He lowered his head and said, "About ten days ago, the Emperor of Qi issued an edict to dismiss the government, and at the same time ordered the third prince, Zhao Li, to enter the council hall to supervise the country."

"At this time, the entire Yandu has acquiesced that the third prince will be the new emperor of Northern Qi."

Speaking of this, he paused, and said: "Originally, this news should have spread to Xuzhou City a few days ago, but the Qi people have surrounded Xuzhou very tightly recently, and there have been wars for several days in a row. Low-level workers have never found a suitable opportunity to enter the city.”

"It wasn't until today that the news was sent to Xuzhou City."

Shen Yi took the internal guard's document, opened it and read it carefully, then sat back in his seat, thoughtful.

After a while, he raised his head and asked, "Apart from that, is there any news?"

"And then there is."

The middle-aged neiwei lowered his head and said: "Before the Emperor Yongping of the Northern Qi Dynasty issued his last decree, he ordered Tu Yuan to return to Yandu. "

"Emperor Yongping saw this, the last courtier of the Northern Qi Dynasty. After seeing Emperor Yongping, this picture seems to have never returned to the north."

"There are rumors in Yandu City that he is going to Huaihe to take over Zhou Shizhong's position, but the inner guard has not found any definite evidence to support this."

Shen Yi thought for a while and asked, "This picture is far away, do you have any detailed information?"

The middle-aged man sighed, bowed his head and said: "Shen Shilang, the inner guard has information on this person, but he didn't have time to sort it out, and he didn't bring it into Xuzhou. I will tell you some simple things."

He paused for a while, and then continued: "This man is Zhuli Zhenren, a rare hero among Zhuli Zhenren of this generation. He has already led the army in the north when he was in his early 40s. He has been fighting with the Tatars for more than ten years. deal."

"I'm 52 years old this year."

"Quite fierce."

"There are rumors that this person likes to eat people..."

Hear here.Shen Yi raised his eyebrows.

"eat human?"

"Ah."

The inner guard's messenger bowed his head and said, "Bake it and eat it..."

When Shen Yi heard this, his expression became a little unsightly.

"Savage beast."

After giving his own evaluation, Shen Yi took a deep breath and began to think in his heart.

At this juncture, Emperor Yongping transferred back the chief general of the northern frontier army, which meant that Northern Qi had successfully "peace talks" with the Tatars for the time being.

And this Tuyuan, no accident, should be to replace Zhou Shizhong.

Because for Northern Qi, the number one worry was that he was sinking someone. Even the people of Qi put down their face and sent a princess to make peace with the Tatars. The purpose was to free up their hands to deal with the enemies along the Huaihe River.

Thinking of this, Shen Yi stood up.

"Have you noticed a large-scale mobilization of the Qi people's army?"

The inner guard's messenger said with a wry smile: "Shen Shilang, I really don't know about this humble job. The humble job is only responsible for sending this piece of information. If the Qi people have a large-scale mobilization of troops, the colleagues of the inner guard should be trying to find a way to send it to Xuzhou." Come to town."

Master Shen nodded silently, thinking about it for himself.

"Jiang Sheng."

After a while, Shen Yi said: "Take the brother of the inner guard down to rest, and treat him with good wine and food."

Jiang Sheng quickly lowered his head and took the messenger down.

As for Shen Yi, he sat silently in the study for a while, and then sent someone to inform Ling Su and other generals, telling them to be more careful.

However, Shen Yi did not let them close the four gates of Xuzhou.

Because the Huai'an army has enough confidence to deal with possible changes.

…………

At the same time, in the big tent of the Southern Expedition Army to the east of Xuzhou City, a man with a thick beard and hair stood in front of Zhou Shizhong with an imperial edict in his hand.

General Zhou's face was not very good-looking, but he knelt down respectfully and received the imperial edict.

The big man looked at Zhou Shizhong who was kneeling in front of him, first grinned, then read the imperial decree again, looked at Zhou Shizhong who was kneeling in front of him, coughed, and said: "General Zhou, the emperor welcomes you!" After you lost Xuzhou, you hesitated to move forward, and you are very dissatisfied with your timid behavior."

"From today onwards, this general will replace General Zhou and take charge of the military affairs of the South Army."

With a sullen face, he said, "General Zhou, what do you want to say?"

Zhou Shizhong had already stood up at this moment. He clasped his fists at the man of the same age in front of him, and said, "Since it is the imperial court's order, Zhou will naturally obey the order. I only hope that General Tu will treat the soldiers of the southern army well."

"Tomorrow Zhou will bind himself to the capital and ask the emperor for guilt."

The one called "General Tu" by Zhou Shizhong is naturally none other than Tu Yuan, the general who has been in command of the northern frontier army all year round.

He is also the most outstanding general among the real Zhu Li of this generation.

However, the Tu family where Tu Yuan belongs to is not high in Zhu Lizhen's status. Compared with the Lang family, Zhu Lizhen's "hometown" like the Tong family is far behind. Stationed on the frontier, there is no way to enter the inner circle of Yandu.

Hearing what Zhou Shizhong said, Tu Yuan patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "Where did General Zhou come from? The emperor never said that he would punish you, and there is no need for you to go to Yandu to plead guilty."

"Before my brother came, I hired you with the emperor. After a while, General Zhou felt wronged. How about being a deputy general by my side?"

Having been able to lead troops on the frontier for many years, Tu Yuan is naturally not a fool.

He knew very well in his heart that the Zhou family had been running the Southern Army for two generations, and it was already deeply ingrained.

He is a newcomer, without Zhou Shizhong's "assistant", no matter how brutal and domineering he is, he will not be able to master the Southern Conscript Army in a short time, let alone send the Southern Conscript Army into the battlefield.

In fact, the reason why Emperor Yongping has not moved Zhou Shizhong until now is because of this.

Although the status of the Zhou family in the Northern Qi Dynasty was not as detached as that of the Zhao family of the Huaihe Navy, it still vaguely became the "Zhou Clan".

It's just that the national power of the Northern Qi Dynasty has always been far superior to that of the Southern Chen Dynasty, resulting in the status of the Southern Conquest Army being far inferior to the Huaihe Navy.

When Zhou Shizhong heard the words, he understood in his heart.

If he doesn't nod, then he will really have to send the capital off.

Thinking of his son Zhou Yuanlang who was running around in Yandu, and thinking of Yandu's family, General Zhou was silent for a while, but still bowed his head and clasped fists at Tuyuan.

"I will meet General Tu at the end."

"General Zhou is too polite."

Tu Yuan also breathed a sigh of relief at this moment, and after pulling Zhou Shizhong to sit down, he said with a smile: "General Zhou, the emperor is very dissatisfied with the situation in Xuzhou. Since this is the future, then this Xuzhou city must be taken back." .”

"Let's discuss and discuss the siege of the city now."

Zhou Shizhong was silent for a long time when he heard the words.

"General Tu, are you only recruiting the southern army and attacking Xuzhou?"

"Of course not."

Tu Yuan shook his head and said: "General Zhou, the emperor is the Holy Lord, and he also knows about military affairs, so naturally he will not let the Zhengnan Army attack Xuzhou City by force."

"At this time, the imperial court has selected 10 horses from the three major battalions, and they are on their way to the Huaihe River. It is estimated that they will arrive here one after another in about a month."

Zhou Shizhong heaved a sigh of relief, bowed his head and said, "General Natu, as soon as the reinforcements from the three battalions arrive, we will attack Xuzhou City immediately."

"Do not."

Tu Yuan shook his head slightly, and said, "What this general means is that before the imperial court's forbidden army arrives, we should first use the southern army to attack Xuzhou, so that this general can have a look at Xuzhou's quality."

"The prophet knows the enemy, and when the three major battalions of the forbidden army arrive, Xuzhou City will naturally be defeated in one battle."

Hearing this sentence, Zhou Shizhong's face turned dark.

This picture is so far away that it is almost impossible to say that the soldiers of the Southern Conquest Army will be used as cannon fodder, and that the Imperial Army of the three major battalions will take credit for it later!

General Zhou had a gloomy face, took several deep breaths, and then said: "General Tu, the Southern Conscript Army is also the imperial court's army, the emperor's army."

"This would have known."

Tu Yuan patted the armor on Zhou Shizhong's shoulder, making a faint sound.

"General Zhou, don't worry, since I command the troops, I won't favor one over another."

"The South Zheng army will attack first, and then let the imperial army attack after the three major battalions arrive."

Tu Yuan smiled: "What does General Zhou think?"

Zhou Shizhong was silent for a long time without speaking.

Tu Yuan laughed heartily.

"Since General Zhou has no objection, let's do this."

"Let's recruit the Southern Army, tomorrow..."

"Start the siege!"

(End of this chapter)