Late Tang

Xuzhou, Linying. .

The city got its name because it was adjacent to Yingshui. At this time, Liang Wang Zhu Quanzhong led his army to station here.As the year approached, there was a gloomy atmosphere in Linying City. Originally, there were nine towns of soldiers and horses in the city, totaling more than [-] people.But now, as the New Year is approaching, only Liang Jun controlled by Zhu Quanzhong, Zhou Ji, the loyal Marshal of Xuzhou, and Lu Yanhong's Chenzhou Army, the loyal Marshal Lu Yanhong who lost the feudal town of Yacheng, are left in Linying's coalition camp. .

But to their southeast, it was the [-] army of four generals Qin Zongquan, Shang Rang, Ge Congzhou, and Zhang Guimou, plus [-] elite soldiers of the Qin Army led by Qin Army General Zhao Ji.It was precisely because of the appearance of Zhao Ji, who was born in a family of generals in Chenzhou, that the originally strong Chenzhou was almost destroyed overnight.A group of old subordinates of the Zhao Ji brothers in Chenzhou attacked the city gate guards, opened the gates and surrendered to Qin, and led the Qin army into the city.

The destruction of the city of Chenzhou caused the defeat of the nine towns that gathered in Chenzhou at that time, and retreated all the way to Xuzhou.It was then that the situation began to change.Li Jing achieved a great victory outside the pass and led hundreds of thousands of troops back to the pass. Immediately after Li Keyong and other nine towns in the north retreated back to their own town, six towns in the nine towns in the south immediately withdrew their troops.

Immediately afterwards, there were rumors in the army that Yang Fuguang had gone to Yanjing to meet Li Jing in secret and negotiate with Qin Fan in secret.

The towns are gone, and only three towns remain.

Lu Yanhong didn't leave because there was only one Chenzhou in his feudal town, and now that Chenzhou was captured, he had nowhere to go except to take back Chenzhou.Zhou Ji didn't leave either, that's because Zhou Ji, a loyal warrior, has only actually controlled one Xuzhou.Chenzhou and Caizhou, the two prefectures that belonged to Zhongwu Town, were lost, and Xuzhou was the first to bear the brunt.He wanted to retreat, but there was nowhere to retreat.

Zhu Wen couldn't leave, he lost the three prefectures of Ying and Song Dynasties, and only Bianzhou was left in his Xuanwu Town. Although he still occupied a Zhengzhou in the Eastern Capital, his Xuanwu Town was separated from the second Jinshang, Shaanxi and Guozhen towns. Come, become an enclave.If Xuzhou loses again, his territory will really be intercepted on both sides, and will be cut off by the Qin army.

Zhu Wen knew very well that after the destruction of Huang Chao, Li Jing became the primary enemy of the new court.But for these feudal commanders who are becoming more and more divided, they are far away from Qin Fan, and Qin Fan cannot directly threaten them.Follow other feudal towns to fight Li Jing, you may not win, but you will lose money and food, and offend Li Jing.Anyway, fighting against the Qin army, it is unlikely to invade the Qin Fan to plunder, and there is almost no benefit in fighting defensively. Who wants to fight?

Anyway, even if the Qin army came over, there would still be those feudal towns standing in front of them.Maybe after those feudal towns standing in front of them weakened in the confrontation with the Qin army, they might still have a chance to make a profit and swallow them.If so, why work so hard.Of course, the most important thing is that even Yang Fuguang, a very prestigious godfather in various towns, went to negotiate with Li Jing, which means that this battle may not be fought.

Other feudal towns, especially the feudal towns in Guanzhong and Shannan are still thinking that the sky is falling and there will be tall people holding it up.But Zhu Wen had to stick to Xuzhou, because the sky was about to fall, and he was the tall man who was about to reach the sky.The 10,000+ Qin army in western Henan is not the real Qin army.Most of them are bandits and bandits, and many of them are Zhu Wen's former comrades in the grass army.Of course he knew what these armies looked like. In fact, when Cai Zongquan and his four reorganized Qin Army regiments attacked Chenzhou, Xuanwu and Jinshang, which were close to Chenzhou, and even the towns of Shanguo, were all under attack. spread.

The Caizhou Army, Yingzhou Army, Haozhou Army and the remnants of the Qi Army, who were robbing money and food, shuttled between the states under his control, just like walking in the backyard of his own home.When Li Keyong and other nine towns were robbing the villages on the border of Li Jing in the north, Qin Zongquan and others sent their many scary auxiliary troops to raid grass valleys, grab money, food, and even people.

Under the locust tactics of the old battalion attacking the city and looting everywhere, Zhu and Wen suffered heavy losses last year. Even the wealthy states of Bian, Zheng, Deng, and Ru suffered famines. Not only were the warehouses in the counties empty, Not even a merchant came over.Although Zhu Wen has a large number of troops, he has a large territory surrounded by ex-opponents who have fought in battles. While dealing with those bandits, he has to stay in the army in various states and counties. , to guard against the hidden arrows that may be shot from behind at any time.

Guanlong and other feudal towns are all waiting to negotiate a peace with Li Jing, and even Li Keyong, who has the hatred of taking his wife and killing his father with Li Jing, has not moved recently, which makes Zhu Wen feel uneasy.They were all willing to negotiate a peace with Li Jing, but only Zhu Wen didn't want the peace to succeed.Because Zhu Wen, who was also born in the Qin army, knew Qin Fan's style very well. The so-called peace negotiation was just a tactic to delay the army and paralyze the enemy's strategy.Zhu Wen's territory is already connected to Li Jing's. It can be said that Li Jing's spear is pointed at his throat, and the long sword is on top of his head, and it may fall at any time.How could it be possible to really negotiate peace when Qin Fan became a tiger and a wolf?Once the Chang'an court really thinks that the world will be peaceful after a peace negotiation, then things will be troublesome.When Li Jing is really coming, who can stop Qin Jun with him?

Hedong Town, Taiyuan Prefecture.

Jinyang Palace, at this time, has become the palace hall and garden of Jin Wang Li Keyong.

In a stone pavilion, on the stone table in the pavilion, there are several kinds of pastries and a jar of spirits.On both sides of the stone table sat two warriors in tucked-in brocade robes, and behind them stood two sturdy warriors, standing with swords on their hands.To the east of the stone pavilion, there is a field of wintersweet blooming in competition, blooming in the wind and snow.

Taiyuan in the twelfth lunar month is very cold.

But the guards and the two men in the stone pavilion didn't seem to feel the cold at all. They drank strong wine and admired the plum blossoms, indescribably free and easy.

"Prince Jin must have guessed my reason for coming, right?" An older middle-aged man sitting in the pavilion picked up the jade cup in front of him, drank a big gulp of Wuliangyu liquid, and put the cup back. on the table.When he spoke, his sharp eyes never left Li Keyong who was sitting opposite him for a moment.

"Negotiate peace!" Li Ke used one eye to look back at the Jiedu Envoy of Hezhong, King of Han and Wang Chongrong, who was also an important military commander in Hedong with him, for a while in silence.Wang Chongrong came to Taiyuan when the New Year was approaching, naturally not just to drink a few glasses of wine and enjoy the plum blossoms.In fact, it is naturally a great event to make Wang Chongrong come here at this time.And this important matter is naturally inseparable from Qin Wang Li Jing.

Last year, Hedong Town, Hezhong Town, Heyang Town, and nine towns including Dingnan, Baoda, and Zhenwu attacked the Qin Fan, which can be said to have completely provoked Li Jing.Taking such a big risk without getting much real spoils.Originally thought that Qin Fan had been fighting in the Northeast for several years, and was still increasing troops to the Northeast, so the war in the Northeast should be difficult for a while, and there might be a longer confrontation.But who would have expected that in the blink of an eye, hundreds of thousands of tribal armies composed of hundreds of tribes would suddenly be defeated, and the defeat was so complete.Even the nine towns in the south have not made any progress.As a result, the eighteen towns crusade against Li Jing, and finally got anticlimactic.

Now that Li Jing is back, there are rumors everywhere that Li Jing not only brought back 50 elite Qin troops, but also a million Fan soldiers.There are even rumors that Li Jing is constantly gathering soldiers and horses in the north, preparing to take fierce revenge on the towns that invaded the Qin Dynasty, especially the nine towns in the north.

No one would deny the strength of the Qin army, and if the Qin army really sent troops to retaliate, then among the nine towns in the north, Hedong Town would bear the brunt first, and then his Hezhong Town.Wang Chongrong was absolutely unwilling to bear Li Jing's anger. He had already found out that Yang Fuguang had personally gone to Yanjing for secret talks, but he didn't know the exact truth of this matter.He was eager to know the real situation, so he rushed to ask Li Keyong.In his mind, Li Keyong was still standing in front of him. If the Qin army really wanted to take revenge, Hedong Town would bear the brunt of it. Therefore, they should be natural allies.

"King Yang is indeed negotiating peace with Li Jing."

"Well, is there a result?" Wang Chongrong asked hastily, "Is Li Jing willing to negotiate a peace?"

"A peace agreement has been reached!"

"Really?" Wang Chongrong was pleasantly surprised, "What is the specific result?"

Li Ke recounted the content of the peace negotiation in a deep voice.

"It turned out to be such a result. This is a good thing. I didn't expect that Li Jing was willing to give in and compromise. It's great." After hearing this, Wang Chongrong heaved a sigh of relief. Looting only asked for the return of the looted population, and did not even ask for real compensation for the looted money and materials.This is really an unexpectedly good result!

"Does King Han think this is a good thing?"

"Is not it?"

Li Keyong sighed and shook his head, "This is a trap, can't King Han see it?" Li Keyong was a little disappointed with Wang Chongrong's reaction. This negotiation result may be satisfactory to Yang Fuguang, but for Hedong For the town and Hezhong Town, it will never be a good result.

"Weibo and Chengde Towns are now a stumbling block and a thorn in Li Jing's eyes. If Li Jing doesn't get rid of the Second Towns, he won't attack the west of Taihang Mountain. Once Li Jing gets rid of Wei Bocheng De, then the next target must be Hedong Town and Hezhong Town. Your lips are dead and your teeth are cold, King Han! Today, Li Jing forced the Yang brothers to sit back and watch the Qin Dynasty annex the second town of Hebei. What should we do when the brothers sit back and watch the Qin army annex our Hedong Second Town?"

Wang Chongrong's face began to become serious, indeed.Li Jing annexed the second town of Hebei, if everyone just sit idly by, then when the Qin Fan attacked the second town of Hedong, who would come to rescue them then?

"However, now that the Qin army is taking advantage of the great victory in the Northeast, its momentum is unparalleled, and the Yang brothers are bent on seeking peace. Even if we have other ideas, we are powerless. If Li Jing is really attracted to abandon Hebei and attack Hedong first, then What shall we do then?"

Between Dead Poverty Dao and Dead Daoist Friends, Wang Chongrong quickly made a choice.The attitude of the Yang brothers is already obvious, they are bent on negotiating peace.Now if they are against the Yang brothers, with the strength of their two towns, it will be difficult for them to effectively protect the second town if they intervene in the situation in Hebei, and they may even burn themselves.Although Qin Jun was not far from Hezhong Town, it wasn't close either. At least there was still Hedong Town in front of him. Before that step, he really didn't want to poke Li Jing, who had been so hard to appease.

Although Li Keyong had already guessed that this might be the result, after seeing Wang Chongrong's reaction, he still couldn't help feeling a little bit disappointed. Wang Chongrong always had such an attitude, so it was even more difficult to convince the Dangxiang people and the Tuyuhun people. .It seemed that he had only one last choice left.

Are you really going to take that step?

Li Ke knew very well in his heart that if he really did that, the result might be even worse.But he really has no choice. Under the current situation, he can only follow closely behind the Yang brothers. Otherwise, not to mention Li Jing, an extremely powerful enemy, even other feudal towns will rush up and take He divided it up.

"Zhu Ahsan, don't blame me. I was forced to do nothing. If possible, I would not come to take your life!" Li Ke sighed secretly in his heart, but remembered that Yang Fuguang secretly entered Taiyuan from Hebei three days ago, and with him After all the earnest explanations, he was helpless.Yang Fuguang asked Li Keyong to accept the order of the emperor and lead his troops to Henan to wipe out the remnants of Huangchao while the negotiation was still in secrecy.Of course, this is only on the surface. In fact, Yang Fuguang asked him to take this opportunity to lead his troops to Xuzhou, Henan, and join Zhu Quanzhong. The name was to reinforce Zhu Quanzhong and others against the Qin army's attack on the west of Henan. In fact, he took the opportunity to approach Zhu Quanzhong, and then directly look for an opportunity to kill Zhu Quanzhong.

Of course, Yang Fuguang did not let him make this trip in vain.He told Li Keyong directly that Li Jing originally wanted his head, but he tried his best to keep it, and finally persuaded Li Jing to exchange Zhu Wen's head for Li Keyong.Therefore, if Li Keyong refused to kill Zhu Quanzhong, then he had to borrow his head.Moreover, Yang Fuguang also promised him that as long as Zhu Quanzhong was eliminated, and he helped him defeat Liang Jun and control Zhu Quanzhong's original counties, then Li Keyong could get [-]% of all Zhu Quanzhong's treasury money, food and military equipment.

This is a great temptation. Although he won the Hedong Township, after all, the Shatuo Army has been hit too hard these years, and it is still far from recovering.It would be extremely helpful if a batch of supplies could be obtained from Liang Fan.Although Zhu Quanzhong has always been looked down upon by him, but this guy has been relying on his master for glory in recent years, occupying a large area of ​​the Central Plains, and he is considered to be one of the fatter towns.

Originally, he was still a little hesitant, because in his opinion, this is not a good time for infighting, and it is easy for Li Jing to take advantage of the opportunity.But now that there is no choice, there is nothing to hesitate.As for how to take Zhu Asan's head in his territory, Li Keyong doesn't seem to be a problem.

A mere pot thief and a pig feeder, is he the opponent of his flying tiger Li Ya'er?Just relying on him, is it worthy? (To be continued.)