Late Tang

Song Wei's commander-in-chief's mansion is very majestic. There are two rows of gorgeous gate halberds at the gate, and six banners are erected in front of the mansion.Six banners on the mansion tree, double banners and double festivals, and halberds in front of the gate, these are the top signs of power.

The butler went back and forth, beckoning Li Jing to follow him into the mansion.In order to avoid attracting attention, Li Jing only brought Zhao Jiang and four special forces with him, and the rest of them booked an inn to temporarily settle down.

Followed all the way, finally the housekeeper brought Li Jing to a main hall.Li Jing looked over and saw double banners and flags hanging in front of the hall.The Jing is made of crimson silk five feet long, with a tiger painted in pink, a bronze dragon with a scarlet flag wrapped around its head, a purple silk bag as a bag, and an oil sac as a watch.At the festival, there are three wooden trays with hanging paintings, a few inches away from each other, with red hemp hanging from the corners, and the rest are the same as Jing.

Jing is dedicated to rewards, and festivals are dedicated to killing.

The Jingjie is the authority of the Jiedushi. When rewarding, the banner is raised, and when the murder is punished, the festival is used.As soon as Li Jing saw the double banners and double festivals, Li Jing already knew that the lobby here was the festival hall for all the festival commanders.In the Water Margin, the White Tiger Hall that Lin Chong entered is the Festival Hall.However, there is a white stone tiger sculpture in front of the festival hall. This habit had to start when Zhu Wen, the emperor of the Later Liang Dynasty, replaced the Tang Dynasty.At this time, tiger is still a taboo word in formal occasions and cannot be used indiscriminately.

As soon as he entered the festival hall, Li Jing immediately felt that dozens of targets in the hall were looking towards him.Li Jing just took a quick glance, and saw that most of the owners of these gazes were military generals, and all of them had extraordinary bearing.The rest of the civil servants in gowns and Futou are also in their fifties, and there is not a single one in their thirties.His eyes quickly saw an acquaintance, it was Lei Gang, the Jiedu magistrate who had just left Dengzhou last time, then the teacher Cui Yunqing, and then there were two half-century old men with gray beards and hair.

Looking at the seats of the two of them, Li Jing already knew that the one sitting first on the left must be the deputy commander Kang Chenghui, and the one sitting on the top was also looking at him, needless to say, it was General Jin Wu and the right servant of the school inspector. She, Marquis of Wu Ning, General Wu Sanjie of the Zhenjun Army, Zhuguo, Ziqingpinglu Army Jiedushi and Qingzhou Inspector Song Weilai.

Li Jing hurriedly stepped forward and bowed to Song Weixing on one knee: "I'm here to thank Li Jing, the military envoy of Xiezhai Town, to meet the commander-in-chief!"

Song Wei's expression was serious, not angry.Li Jing knelt there and had finished paying respects, but he didn't let Li Jing get up for a long time, and after a while, he nodded, "So you are Li Jing and Li Jiyu, yes, although you are young, you have the air of a general. I thought that Li Sanlang who dared to ask me for the position of governor of Dengzhou and envoy of Zhendong army would be a proud and arrogant person, but when I saw him today, he was beyond my expectation, not bad."

Song Wei used two good ones in a row. The first impression was really good. This surprised even the other generals. Song Wei is a bit rigid, and it is rare to see him praise someone like this.Especially after Li Jing made some excessive demands.

"This commander has heard your request from Judge Lei, governor of Dengzhou, envoy of the Zhendong Army, how dare you make such a request, and how do you think I will agree?"

Li Jing raised his head and looked at Song Wei, without the slightest fear: "Because I think I can protect Dengzhou for the commander in chief, as long as the commander hands over Dengzhou to me, I will guarantee that Dengzhou will be even better than it is now." Obey the command of the commander. Moreover, I can hand over more money and food to the commander than now!"

Song Wei just nodded slightly, and then said: "I promise you, but the premise is that you must first try your best to eradicate Wang Jingwu."

"This is why I came here!" Li Jing said, and he explained in detail what he found in Bochang City, as well as his guesses and judgments.

After listening to it, Song Wei and everyone's complexions were not very good. Thinking about what Li Jing said at this moment, they understood what was going on with the invitation that Wang Jingwu sent them.

"Wang Jingwu set up a Hongmen banquet for us!" Kang Chenghui said angrily.

Cui Yunqing also took a long breath: "This Wang Jingwu is so insidious, he is going to attack first as Ji Yu said."

The banquet was just after dark. At this time, the sun had already set, and there was only the last ray of light left in the sky and the earth. It would be dark in less than half an hour.In less than an hour at most, the Wang family's banquet will begin.It can be imagined that the palace must be full of knives and axes in ambushes, waiting for them to come to the door.

Song Wei's heart broke out in shock. All along, he felt that Wang Jingwu would never dare to attack first.If it wasn't for Li Jing's reminder, he would have been really hard to guard against.

"What should we do now?" Kang Chenghui looked at Song Wei, although he was the deputy general, but Kang Chenghui could be a fierce general, but he was not a wise general, let alone handsome.He was able to be the deputy commander because of his loyalty to Song Wei and his prestige and qualifications among Song Wei's subordinates. "Why don't we just attack first and kill Wang Jingwu first?"

"No, it must be too late for our troops to gather now. Wang Jingwu will not only be in ambush in the mansion at this time, but he has already begun to mobilize troops." Cui Yunqing shook her head and said, although they have tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, but in fact, There are only 6000 personal soldiers of the commander-in-chief's mansion and [-] personal guards of the supervising army in the city, while the [-] Dengzhou united soldiers are currently stationed in the united camp ten miles north of the city.Even among the [-] men and horses in this city, most of them are in the outer city.

"Ji Yu, where are your troops?"

"When I came, I already asked the navy to stay in Bochang, and asked the remaining five battalions to come day and night."

Song Wei frowned in disappointment: "It's a full three hundred miles from Bochang. It's okay for a small group of you to come here, but for the majority, it's estimated that you won't be able to arrive within three days."

"In less than three days, the soldiers and horses I brought this time not only have horses for the cavalry, but also have horses for the infantry. They are all mounted infantry. And considering the ever-changing battlefield, they are all equipped with two horses. But The march of large troops can't match my speed, and I estimate that they will arrive tomorrow morning at the earliest, and at noon tomorrow at the latest." Li Jing said, this time Li Jing paid a lot of money, the whole army doubled, and the entire army The mobility of the troops has been raised to the highest level.Moreover, the entire army carried canned food and refined green fodder, which saved the trouble of cooking during the march, and both men and horses could maximize their mobility.

"Wang Jingwu won't wait until tomorrow to attack. Ji Yu's five thousand soldiers and the Qingzhou Unity Battalion's five thousand soldiers are useless now." Kang Chenghui sighed.

Lei Gang also looked bitter. He thought this was a good time to deal with Wang Jingwu, but he never expected that Wang Jingwu would be the first to attack. "More than that, if it is dark today and the city gate is closed, not only the gate from the outer city gate to the city gate is closed, but also the gate from the inner city to the outer city is closed. On the side of Zhang Junjun, his supervisor The three thousand personal guards of the Military Academy are all stationed in the Eastern Camp in the outer city."

First went to 500, and then went to [-], and after calculation, only Song Wei's [-] personal guards were left in the inner city.But although these [-] personal guards are well equipped, they have been recruited and trained for less than a year, and only [-] of them are combat veterans brought by Song Wei.

This result was even worse than Li Jing expected, and he couldn't help but say: "It's better to avoid the edge for the time being, let's contact Zhang Jianjun first, then break out of the outer city together, gather Zhang Junjun's guards, and then go out of the city and go straight to the Unity Barracks , as long as we stick to it until tomorrow, as soon as my soldiers and horses arrive, there should be no problem, and it won’t be too late to come back and deal with Wang Jingwu.” Although there are many loopholes in this plan, after much deliberation, Li Jing can only fight like this.Stay here until it gets dark and Wang Jingwu makes a move. Li Jing doesn't think that the three thousand soldiers can stop the tens of thousands of soldiers in Qingzhou.

"It's too late!" Song Wei's face was a bit ugly. He is a veteran who has been through battles for a long time. He understands the current situation very well and knows exactly what will happen next.If he is Wang Jingwu, he will definitely use the convenience of controlling the city defense to isolate the inner and outer cities.Then lay an ambush in the palace, so that he, Jieshuai's mansion, and those big families in other cities can be directly controlled immediately.As a result, he and Zhang Wanrong's soldiers and horses immediately became leaderless and scattered.At that time, Wang Jingwu could easily defeat all the ministries and easily control Qingzhou.

If you want to run now, it must be too late. The gates of the city must already be heavily guarded by this time.

Li Jing was also turning his mind quickly. He came three hundred miles away, but he didn't come here to be caught.

"Since we can't leave, then let's not leave. In my opinion, it's better to just plan and go straight to the nest!" Li Jing said fiercely.

Although Song Wei was not flustered at this time, he couldn't think of any good solution for a while, and he couldn't help saying to Li Jing, "Ji Yu has any good plans, you might as well just tell them."

Li Jing gritted his teeth and said bitterly: "The so-called wise man is bound to make a mistake. Then Wang Jingwu's plan is really good, one link after another. He set up a banquet, and he can beat all the people who want to be born in Qingzhou city." Do, this move is quite vicious. But there is a loophole in this move." Li Jing chuckled: "Now that we know Wang Jingwu's plan, then we can reverse it."

"You think, we will be able to enter the palace by taking advantage of the opportunity of the banquet. At that time, we can come to a preemptive strike and attack directly at the Wang family. As long as we capture the thief and the king and capture Wang Jingwu, you say, is the matter correct? Is there a chance to come back?"

Song Wei's eyes lit up. Although this plan is very risky, there is no other way to do it right now.If Wang Jingwu can really be captured, then it is indeed possible to bring the situation back. "The military camp of the Shuai Mansion can't be moved anymore. It must be under Wang Jingwu's surveillance. If you want to capture Wang Jingwu, you can't do it without soldiers. Where can we get another group of people now?"

Li Jing said loudly: "Commander, I have led two hundred elites to come here this time, and I am in an inn not far from the commander's residence at this time, and I can greet you at any time."

The other generals and officials also opened their mouths, saying that dozens or hundreds of family members could be transferred from the mansion.Calculated in this way, there are actually 3000 people.

Li Jing said: "Each person brings about 20 people with him to the banquet, and let the rest wait in the mansion first. Once we make a move, we will set fire in the palace at that time, and then the servants of each mansion will come to reinforce. In addition, we must immediately send someone to contact Zhang Jianjun and Shuaifu's personal barracks, so that they will join forces at that time and join the palace. As long as we capture Wang Jingwu and hold on for another night, the matter will be successful."

"There is also the Unity Camp outside the city. We have to find a way to inform them and let them come. There is no need to actually attack the city. Just light more torches under the city and say that I have led the Dengzhou soldiers to arrive. That can also be done. Contain part of Wang Jingwu's troops. Wait until our army arrives tomorrow, then we can really attack."

This plan was thought up in a hurry, and there are still many loopholes, but now time is tight, and there is no time to think about it.No one asked what to do if Wang Jingwu couldn't be caught, or what would happen if Wang Jingwu didn't let the guards brought in by the crowd.At this time, there is no time to think about these details, so I can only improvise when the time comes.

After everyone returned home, Song Wei said to Li Jing: "Ji Yu, if someone asks about your identity later, you can say that you are my nephew from the same family, named Song Yu and Song Sanlang." Only Song Wei and Li Jing were left, and Cui Yunqing, Kang Chenghui, Lei Gang and others had already gone home to make arrangements.After a while of silence, Song Wei suddenly turned his head and patted Li Jing on the shoulder, saying: "If this matter can be successful, there is no problem with the position of governor of Dengzhou, the number of Zhendong army and the military envoy you requested. .”

"Don't worry, Commander, Wang Jingwu can't turn the tide, let alone succeed!" Li Jing said very calmly.

Song Wei patted Li Jing's shoulder again, turned his head away, and sighed, "You are very good!" This is the third time Song Wei praised Li Jing for being very good tonight.

(To be continued)