A rebellious minister forced me to be a foolish king

Chapter 618 The Only Ally
The current situation is quite delicate.

In those days, Huaxu swallowed up Bailang Dangxiang and its surrounding vassal states, dominated Kunlun, and the combined territory accounted for half of the Northern Zhou territory. However, the land of Jingxiang has always been in the Zhou Kingdom in name only. Although Southern Jingzhou was the foundation of the Later Liang Dynasty, the Later Liang was originally a puppet supported by the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Xiangyang, on the other hand, was known to be loyal only to Chang'an and not to the Yuwen family, and was in a state of following orders but not decrees.

If the Zhou Kingdom lost Jingxiang, its territory would be almost the same as when Huaxu was victorious, except that Huaxu was vast and sparsely populated, with a population less than that of Chang'an.

But no matter who gets the land of Jingxiang, the offensive and defensive situation will change. Therefore, the Zhou Kingdom has never let Xiangyang go for many years, and has strictly guarded the land of Jingxiang to welcome the enemy.

But now the Bailang tribe has reached the doorstep, and the Zhou State still resorts to a bad strategy, trying to catch the turtle in the jar, thinking that killing Xiangyang and the leader of Bailang will stabilize the Zhou State.

Unexpectedly, when King Fengling learned last night that Zhou had imprisoned the Prefect of Xiangyang, he asked Li Mingjian, who could enter and leave Zhou freely and bring out the emperor's Tiger Guards, to replace the Prefect of Xiangyang with the masked Tiger Guards, but asked his deputy to disguise himself as the Prefect of Xiangyang and bring the person out under the pretext of looking for Yuan Wuyou.

The two Xiangyang prefects originally went to Qushen City together, but his deputy general mistook him for him and killed him by mistake. Even his body was taken away by the Zhou army to report.

The Bailan invasion of Zhou was exposed because the wild soldiers did not follow strict military orders during the march. It was unknown who came up with the bad idea. In order to raise food for the Bailan tribe, they took advantage of the tense battle situation in Nanyang and attempted to attack the east and the west, using the war in Bowang City in the past two days to cover up their own troops and rob food.

As a result, because the areas south of Nanyang were all controlled by Xiangyang, the Zhou army could only station troops in Nanyang. With nothing to do, they had to keep an eye on the vicinity every day. This is how Bai Lan's attempt to steal food came into play.

At the end, Yu Taishou still reminded her with a heavy heart that she must be careful of the Tanguts who were trying to take advantage of the situation. This time, the Tanguts were here because of the murder of Xifeng's deputy. It was rumored that he was killed by Fengling Wang. The Tanguts' military strength was more than ten times stronger than Bailan's. If they really came to take revenge secretly, she would naturally bear the brunt.

After understanding the war situation in Jingxiang, Yuan Wuyou left Yu Taishou and his followers alone in the house, and signaled Li Mingjian to come in and protect their safety. Then he turned around and looked at the white-robed princess who was waiting for her at the door.

Seeing Xiao Tongyan, Yuan Wuyou understood more clearly how complicated and clear the situation was today. Wasn't Nanjingzhou the territory of the Xiao family of Houliang? Without the permission of Houliang, the Bailan Dangxiang would not have been able to bring troops to the city so easily.

Xiao Tongyan suddenly smiled and asked her,
"Your Majesty, you won't blame me for tricking you into coming here to watch the fun, right? I won't betray my friends."

The queen turned around and glared at her. "Isn't it just to avenge the fall of Jiangling? Our Yuan family is also an accomplice. I can't believe you won't stab me in the back. Tell me, what do you want to do with those people?"

"Tsk, the king is really a smart man. It's a good match to form an alliance with you."

Yuan Wuyou did guess right.

In order to avenge the Later Liang Dynasty who invited the wolf into the house when Jiangling fell, and the Yuwen family who misinterpreted the intentions of the empress, the Xiao family had long planned to collude with Lu Renjia, the orphan who was in trouble with Jiangling, to implement her desperate plan.

In the "Book of Life and Death", he had already planned how to retaliate against Yuwen Tai, Yuwen Hu, Yu Jin, Yuchi Jiong, Yang Zhong, Wei Xiaokuan and others who led the army that year.

At present, the brothers of the Yuwen family have been stranded in Nanyang for many days, so they naturally cannot be left behind. Although Yu Jin is dead, his son Yu Li can come. Yuchi Jiong also came. Yang Zhong died early. Although Wei Xiaokuan did not come, his plans were repeatedly broken, which was also a miserable failure.

In fact, Yuan Wuyou had already felt compassion when she learned that the Xiao family wanted to harm Yuwen Huaibi. Even though she knew that Xiao Tongyan didn't have the ability to kill the king, she was just afraid of the possibility. Besides, the death of Yuwen Huaibi would not have any impact on the powerful minister Yuwen Hu. He could pick another one to be the emperor on the spot, which would only make the relatives sad and the enemies happy. Just now, when she saw Yu Li's name was also on the King of Hell's Book of Life and Death, Yuan Wuyou really couldn't sit idly by. She only had Yu Li as a close friend regardless of age! So the most urgent thing was that she had to figure out Xiao Tongyan's purpose and see how she could mediate and save the person she wanted to save.

Thinking of the names on the Book of Life and Death, Yuan Wuyou couldn't help but ask, "Why are the names of the Xiao family members on the list? You don't even let your own family members go?"

She looked carefully and found it was a familiar name: Xiao Yuansu.

Xiao Tongyan sneered when he heard this, "Who says he is one of our family? He is just a stray dog ​​who recognizes masters everywhere, a traitor to the Xiao family."

Yuan Wuyou's question hit the nail on the head. Xiao Tongyan really hated this Xiao and had long since listed him as a target to be killed. It turned out that Xiao Yuansu's father, Xiao Ji, had taken advantage of the fall of Jiangling to plan for internal strife and actually proclaimed himself emperor in Chengdu and named his son Xiao Yuansu the Prince of Yidu.

But the main culprit of the Xiao family was dead, and Xiao Zha, who insulted Xiao Tongyan's father to death, was also dead. Naturally, she transferred her hatred to Xiao Yuansu, who failed to defend Shu and surrendered to the Northern Zhou. It just so happened that he was transferred to Yuwen Zhi's command, so he could kill two birds with one stone.

There were dark clouds hanging over everyone's heads, and rainwater was still accumulating on the bluestone road beneath their feet.

A cool breeze blew across the flowers and plants in the nursery in the backyard of the main hall, blowing away the bangs of the girl in men's clothing and wearing a golden crown. Even her breath was damp with the feeling of a sudden rain.

When King Fengling, who was wearing noble robes, heard this, his sharp brows furrowed, and his pair of brown phoenix eyes suddenly raised, looking arrogantly at the silver-armored woman opposite him.

"It's more than killing two birds with one stone, right? Even if you can't stand the Yuwen family killing innocent people indiscriminately and the Yujin family being accomplices, what's my fault? What's the fault of Xiangyang Yu Taishou?"

Xiao Tongyan's expression remained unchanged, the corners of his lips curled slightly, but the corners of his eyes were slightly narrowed, revealing a murderous intent.

"Yu Fei invaded Xiangyang, and the old people in Jingzhou refused to obey the Xiao family of Hou Liang. We didn't specifically target them or you. It was just a matter of convenience."

"Conveniently? You used a trick on me to destroy Wei Xiaokuan's plan to make the emperor his minister, and you used a trick on the Chishui female bandit to indirectly murder the Yuan and Wei families, and colluded with the Chishui rebel Wei Tuohua to kill Chi Luoxie? You have made countless enemies like this, aren't you afraid that the families will come back to their senses and kill you without a burial place?"

"How could that be? They all have their own grudges, and I am just fanning the flames. Apart from me, you are the only one who can sort things out like the King."

After a pause, Xiao Tongyan's eyes sparkled.

"Isn't this good? I can kill two birds with one stone and get the imperial seal back. The king is the only ally recognized by my Xiao family. I will cause chaos on the border, and you will join me to fish in troubled waters."

"You've thrown a lot of dirty water on me."