The first prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 38 Meng Chang's Peace
The young man Zhao Yu saw was Zhao Xu. After Zhao Xu left Tangcang, he went directly to meet Zhao Kuangyin and Wang Jing.

They are discussing how to break through Qinzhou City. Although they are surrounding Qinzhou now, the walls of Qinzhou City are high and thick.

No matter how strong and elite the soldiers of the Great Zhou were, there would be casualties, but those were all life, and it was best to reduce casualties.

When everyone was having a headache what to do, the spies sent news that Han Jixun, the Jiedu envoy of the Xiongwu Army, had fled back to Chengdu.

When he left, he took the elite of his subordinates with him, and now in Qinzhou City, it is the observation officer Zhao Ting who is in charge of all affairs, big and small.

At this time, Miao Xun suggested that Zhao Xu could try to send someone to persuade Zhao Ting to surrender, and he would probably surrender me, Zhao Tinghui, to the city.

In this way, the casualties of both soldiers and civilians can be reduced.The reason why Miao Xunyi is so sure is that he has been in Shu for several years, and he still knows the details of some officials in Shu.

This Zhao Ting's ancestral home is the Central Plains area, but when Hou Shu occupied Qinzhou, he was still a small official, but he has become a big official now.

At the same time, even Zhao Ting knows that he likes to eat the Yellow River carp from his hometown, this Miao training is really not simple.

So Zhao Xu immediately decided to go by himself, and he would not listen to anyone's persuasion. Seeing that he was determined to do so, Miao Xun also decided to follow.

Zhao Xu had also experienced Miao Xun's stubbornness, so Zhao Xu let him go if there was no other way.

However, Zhao Xu originally planned to go by himself, but since Miao Xun was going with him, he naturally wanted to bring guards.

These are his two bodyguards, Dong Zhenhai and Liu Qinhu, who performed well in this battle.

Zhao Xu discussed his idea with his father Zhao Kuangyin and Wang Jing, and they also thought it was okay, but it was a bit risky.

They were worried about what to do if Zhao Yu detained them.That's how Zhao Xu answered them at this time.

If he detains us, you will be able to attack the city with all your strength at that time, so you can leave in style after speaking.

When the group of them appeared in front of Zhao Ting, they immediately attracted the attention of his guards.

They quickly surrounded the four of them, and Dong Zhenhai and Liu Qinhu were also on guard nervously.

On the other hand, Zhao Xu and Miao Xun looked very relaxed. Zhao Xu walked over and waved his two guards back.

From a distance, he said a word to Zhao Tang:

"Master Zhao, do you still remember the smell of Yellow River carp?"

After Zhao Ting heard this sentence, the guards retreated immediately. He knew that the young man was the envoy of the Great Zhou, and he was still thinking about how to defend the city, so the envoy of the Great Zhou came.

Is there any way to go.So he invited Zhao Xu and his party into the living room. They were all his cronies here, and Zhao Ting didn't have any scruples.Talked to them for a long time.

Then Zhao Xu and his party left, and it didn't take long for Zhao Ting to open the city gate and surrender to the city with the seal ribbon and the Qinzhou military and civilian register in his hands.

When Chai Rong in Bianjing heard that Qinzhou was occupied by the Great Zhou, he clapped his hands happily. When he heard that Zhao Xu and others had entered the city alone to persuade Zhao Xuan to surrender, he was even more appalled.

The decree was awarded, and all the rewards were issued on the spot after returning to the court.

At this time in the court hall of Houshu, Meng Chang was furious when he heard that Qinzhou was occupied, and wanted to punish Han Jixun who ran back.

"Han Jixun, you have failed me, but you ran back by yourself. What should you do?"

Meng Chang was furious.Qinzhou, which took a lot of effort to occupy back then, is now captured by Zhou Guo without much effort. Can he not be angry?

Han Jixun was so frightened that he also prostrated himself on the ground. His own emperor didn't even bat an eye when he killed the ministers, so he was really scared.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, you, listen to what I said. I will report the situation to you at the risk of death breakout meeting. I hope you can send troops. When I left, I made good defense arrangements and handed them over to Zhao. Yu."

Han Jixun looked at Meng Chang and saw that he did not continue to lose his temper, so he continued to preach:

"I have arranged the defense. According to my arrangement, it is very difficult for the Zhou army to break through Qinzhou City. It must be that Zhao Ting surrendered to the enemy."

Han Jixun was drenched in sweat, just at this time, the latest information was sent back.

It clearly stated that the whole story of Qinzhou's occupation turned out to be the surrender of Zhao Yuxian.

Meng Chang tore the information to pieces after reading it. At this time, Han continued to breathe a sigh of relief, and thanked Zhao Ting very much in his heart.

Meng Chang also asked Han Jixun to stand up and answer, and at the same time discussed with the ministers what to do.

"Your Majesty, I have something to pay attention to." A minister came out of the class and said.

Meng Chang saw that it was the privy envoy Wang Zhaoyuan, who was his confidant and favorite general, and he compared himself to Zhuge Liang.

Meng Chang smiled and said:

"If Aiqing has any good ideas, you might as well tell them, and see if there is anything that can save our Shu Kingdom."

Meng Chang would die too, and he felt like going to the doctor in a hurry.

With the emperor's permission, Wang Zhaoyuan said slowly:
"Your Majesty, our national strength is not as strong as that of the Great Zhou, and we do not have as many soldiers and generals as the Great Zhou, but can we seek foreign aid?"

Wang Zhaoyuan's solution is to find foreign aid for the Great Shu Kingdom.

Meng Chang also murmured: "Foreign aid? Where can we find foreign aid at this time?"

"Your Majesty, for example, the Khitan and Southern Tang countries. The Khitan is our world enemy, so we can't ask him, so let's go to the Southern Tang!"

Wang Zhaoyuan made a brief analysis and said.

Meng Chang didn't make a decision right away: "What do you think?" This Meng Chang also knows how to brainstorm.

At this time, the minister still dares to say anything, and he will be punished if he says something wrong. If he wants to make a good suggestion, he still supports it!

Without any suspense, Wang Zhaoyuan's proposal was approved, and Meng Chang immediately sent envoys to contact Southern Tang.

Li Jing, the emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty, did not do much in politics, but he was very talented in poetry.

Without any court discussion, it was decided to send troops to Houzhou, and at the same time, secret envoys were sent to contact Khitan to prepare to attack Houzhou on both sides.

This series of actions of the Southern Tang Dynasty also provided an excellent reason for the Great Zhou to attack the Southern Tang Dynasty in the future.

If Li Jing knew that he would lose Jiangbei for fourteen weeks, I don't know if he would attack Dazhou.

Hou Shu's backup did not seem to have any effect. Under the command of Zhao's father and son and Wang Jing and others, Hou Shu's army was so powerful that Hou Shu was helpless to fight back.

Success at this time.Tier [-] states, seeing that Qinzhou had already surrendered, knew that they could not hold on, and with the help of old acquaintances, the two states surrendered soon after Zhao Ting's persuasion.

Soon, three of the four prefectures of Qin and Feng returned to the embrace of the Great Zhou, and even the invading enemies of the Southern Tang Dynasty were beaten to death.

I heard that Cheng and Jie states had surrendered again this time, and I was even more frightened; so I wrote a letter.A peace letter was sent to Bianliang.

After seeing it, Chai Rong threw it on the ground without paying attention or responding.

Meng Chang's general meaning is;

"The Emperor of the Great Shu State wrote to the Emperor of the Zhou State. Our hometowns are all from Hebei, that is to say, we are all fellow villagers, so why should it be difficult for fellow villagers to be fellow villagers?"

This guy Meng Chang is also silly and cute. Now is the time to fight for hegemony, not the time for fellow villagers to meet fellow villagers.

"So we should have a friendly relationship and not a war, right?"

Meng Chang just wants to make peace, so if you want to make peace, just ask for peace, and if you want to make a relationship with a fellow villager, Chai Rong will buy it for you.

The most important thing is that you, Meng Chang, also claimed to be the emperor of the Great Shu Kingdom, and wrote to the Emperor of the Zhou Kingdom, which invisibly placed your Shu Kingdom above the Zhou Kingdom.

When Zhou Shizong Chai Rong read the letter, he scoffed even more.I think Da Zhou is the Lord of the Central Plains.

It has jurisdiction over more than ten provinces including Henan, Hebei, Shanxi, and Shandong, and it can be said to be the largest country since the Five Dynasties.

And you, Meng Chang, only have jurisdiction over a province of Sichuan, so how can you be on an equal footing with me?He also called himself the Kingdom of Shu.

At that time, Liu Bei's territory was bigger than yours, and you were not as arrogant as you. Did you, Meng Laosan, think you were awesome?

Besides, in my eyes, these lower countries are separatist forces, and sooner or later they will be wiped out.

I want to rule the world, not through war, through what?Can you surrender obediently, want to make peace, but there is no door, you just wait to be beaten.

So Chai Rong never wrote back to Meng Chang.

When the news reached Chengdu, Meng Chang was very scared, but it was more of an imbalance:
"You, Chai Rong, are too presumptuous. When I was emperor, you were still selling tea and being a lowly businessman.

Now that you are sitting on the Central Plains, you look down on me, what the hell are you? "

Complaints belong to complaints. Meng Chang knew that it was impossible to seek peace, so he also actively prepared for war to prevent attacks in the next week.

Meng Chang wanted to hoard a large number of troops in Jianmen and Baidi City for defense, because he was really afraid that Da Zhou would invade the Kingdom of Shu.

This requires a lot of troops, but the current number of the Shu army is really not enough. With the deployment of a large number of troops, the Shu army began to have the problem of insufficient troops.

The problem of lack of troops is easy to solve, so go to conscription, otherwise there is no other way, Meng Chang swiped a pen, and the whole country began to conscript.

It is not enough to stipulate that all men over the age of 14 and under the age of 60 must join the army.

In desperation, he changed the lower age limit to 11 years old, and now the number of soldiers is enough.

With a large number of conscriptions, the land in the countryside began to be unmanaged, some have gradually become deserted, and some villages are even empty.

At the same time, a large number of people poured into the barracks, accompanied by the major problem of insufficient logistics. In order to solve the problem of military rations, Meng Chang forcibly collected military rations again.

At the same time, Hou Shu began to forge a large amount of iron coins, and forcibly expropriated iron objects from the people, which made the people miserable.

It can be said that before the war started, Hou Shu was already doomed to fail, and it was Hou Shu himself who forcibly defeated him.

A soldier with a ruined family, will the common people who are willing to work for you and have a ruined family be of one mind with you?
What else are you talking about?
(End of this chapter)