Stable as Mount Tai

In the early morning of the seventeenth day of the first month of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Zuo Mengeng, with bubbles at the corners of his mouth, ran all the way into Zuo Liangyu's room, only to find that his father had already gotten up and was leaning on the recliner with his eyes closed, quietly warming himself by the fire.

Zuo Mengeng, who was greatly surprised, couldn't help but said anxiously: "Father, handsome! Please, stop pretending to be sick and go see Uncle Fang Shi. This has been all night, and he has fainted from crying several times."

But Zuo Liangyu only opened his eyes and glanced at Zuo Mengeng, then closed his eyes again and continued to ignore him like last night.

Zuo Mengeng had no choice but to sit aside with a sigh and a loud voice. He understood that it would be useless to say more at this time. The only thing he could do was to wait for Zuo Liangyu to change his mind.

Zuo Mengeng was completely unable to understand what Zuo Liangyu meant. He felt that everything was inexplicable and difficult to understand.

Zuo Liangyu not only claimed to be ill and refused to meet Fang Guoan when he came to see him yesterday afternoon, but even after learning that Li Ping had annihilated Fang Guoan's army that went to retaliate, he did nothing and continued to pretend to be ill.

This confused everyone and made the air in Wuchang and Hanyang weird.

The discussion and "outrage" soon turned into wait-and-see and silence. Zuo Liangyu's generals who had gathered in a hurry outside Zuo Liangyu's residence gradually dispersed, leaving only Fang Guoan's lonely wailing.

The anxious Zuo Mengeng understood that change must start with Zuo Liangyu's willingness to meet Fang Guoan, so he tried his best to achieve this.

But everything is in vain.

No matter how he begged his father last night, Zuo Liangyu just treated him as nothing.

As time passed, one of Zuo Liangyu's confidants walked in from outside.

He first carefully scanned the entire room, and then clasped his fists and reported to the only father and son in the room: "The soldiers and horses of General Zhao Jin and guerrilla Shi Ming are still in their own camp, and there is not a single soldier."

After leaving, the fleet under its control did not see any changes, which was no different from yesterday afternoon."

"I know." Zuo Liangyu finally spoke softly.

Zuo Mengeng looked at the soldier who turned around and left in surprise for a moment. When he looked back, he found that Zuo Liangyu's eyes opened again and he squinted at him.

Zuo Mengeng was a little confused and said: "Father, since you are worried about them, why didn't you just dispatch troops to take precautions yesterday?"

But Zuo Liangyu did not answer this question, but asked: "Do you still think I should meet Mr. Fang?"

Seeing that his father was actually willing to talk to him, Zuo Mengeng suddenly became excited. He hurriedly sat upright and said, "I don't understand why my father is like this? Then Li Ping is good at killing friendly troops because of trivial matters.

Then he started a private war and attacked and killed thousands of friendly troops. Everyone who heard about it was horrified.

As a victim of suffering, Uncle Fang came to see his father for justice, so it was natural. Even though his father had not thought of how to deal with Li Ping for a while, he couldn't turn him away!

My father is like this now. He who doesn’t know the truth thinks that Li Ping’s lawless actions were inspired by us. Not only is it ridiculous, but it also confuses all the troops.”

"Do you think Li Ping's crime is unpardonable?" Zuo Liangyu continued to ask in a nonchalant manner.

"Of course, is there any need to say this?" Zuo Mengeng was immediately filled with indignation, but he immediately reacted and asked doubtfully: "Does father want to protect that Li Ping? Why do you have such an idea?"

Seeing that Zuo Liangyu was silent, Zuo Mengeng became a little excited and said: "It's true that Li Ping is a guerrilla. He just won the great victory at Huangpi and earned face for his father. He was also praised by his father in front of all the troops. But

You can’t just be worried about it and not punish him!

Then Li Ping killed none other than Fang Wuke! That was Fang Shishu's nephew.

A general manager, who is not even in his camp, will be beheaded as soon as he is told. Whoever gives him the courage and power.

Not to mention that, he actually dared to attack and kill friendly troops brazenly, killing not one or two, let alone ten or hundreds, but thousands.

What kind of behavior is this?

This is simply lawlessness and lawlessness! Does he still know what reverence is in his eyes? Does he still know what rules are? But he still takes you, handsome father, in his eyes..."

Zuo Mengeng's mouth kept spraying like a barrage of cannons, and he became more and more excited. He seemed to want to say all the words he had been holding back all night and all the reasons he thought of.

But his eyes were still watching his father closely, for fear that his father would refuse to listen again.

But this time, Zuo Liangyu did not interrupt Zuo Mengeng, nor did he close his eyes again, but just looked at Zuo Mengeng and watched his son vent.

When Zuo Mengeng finally realized that he had said too much and stopped weakly, Zuo Liangyu calmly continued: "Fang Wuke snatched Li Ping's woman. Li Ping shouldn't have chopped him."

? Thousands of troops from General Fang went to attack Li Ping. Will Li Ping wait to die if he doesn’t fight back?"

Zuo Liangyu seemed to be planning to have a serious discussion with his son.

"Ah...ah?" Zuo Mengeng was caught off guard by the sudden and continuous questions. After he calmed down, he hurriedly explained:

"Father, you don't know something. That woman is not Li Ping's wife and concubine, and no one has heard that Li Ping plans to marry her. She is an orphan who broke up her family, and she has been staying in Zhao Jin's camp these days. In this way.

If a woman is caught in every camp and no one really takes her seriously, then Li Ping is simply making a fuss out of a molehill and is used to being domineering.

The thousands of men and horses that Uncle Fang Shishu lost did not go to attack Li Ping. They just wanted to seek justice and an explanation for Fang Wuke's death. At most, they would use their fists. They had no intention of fighting at all. Moreover.

Uncle Fang himself didn’t know either…”

But Zuo Liangyu, who patiently listened to the explanation, had a strange expression on his face. The corners of his mouth were slightly raised, and his tone was full of sarcasm:

"No matter what you say, that woman is also Li Ping's woman. This is something that many people know. Even I have heard it for a long time. Fang Wuke did steal Li Ping's woman. This is a fact. Any man with a temper

Neither can be tolerated.

As for General Fang sending troops to attack Li Ping, are you stupid? How could three thousand people send troops without the order of the general of the army? Do you really think that everyone else is a fool? Three thousand people are just going to fight! Such nonsense

Can you believe it too?"

Zuo Mengeng was stunned again by the question. He scratched his head for a long time before he thought of something else and said: "Father, listen to me..."

But Zuo Liangyu interrupted him without any doubt and said, "Stop talking." Then he asked, "What did my wife say?"

"My wife?"

Zuo Mengeng murmured something incomprehensible, and then said in confusion: "What does she know as a woman? All she knows is to advise me not to be angry, and to just listen to my father's arrangements. Li Ping has no choice but to say that he is one of his own.

Are you still thinking about what you did to save her in the first place?"

"Alas!" Zuo Liangyu sighed deeply, and then said with some hatred: "You are really not as understanding as your wife! As a father, I really hope you can figure it out yourself!"

"What's the meaning?"

"What do you mean! Have you ever figured out who you are from? Commander-in-Chief Fang has a long friendship with us, but no matter how good the relationship is, we will never be able to form an army. You are not a relative of Commander-in-Chief Fang, let alone his.

subordinate.

But Li Ping is your subordinate, and he is also a fierce general who is willing to follow us. He is also your wife's savior.

How can you only care about your personal preferences and forget your own business, let alone distinguish between right and wrong?

Li Ping killed Fang Wuke because Fang Wuke snatched his woman first, not because Li Ping went to look for trouble. Li Ping defeated General Fang's troops near his own camp, which was a counterattack. Logically speaking, Li Ping

That's right, but judging from the results, General Fang suffered a big loss.

If we have to say that Li Ping is at fault, then he can only be regarded as acting too violently.

How do you want the 200,000 troops under my command to look at each other since you can't tell the difference between familiarity and distance? How do you plan to count on who is willing to work for my Zuo family in the future? Besides, you want to push Li Ping to the side of the traitor army.

?

When the bandit army was about to attack, the unreasonable behavior of that party was really hateful and disturbed the morale of our army. But you, Uncle Fang, got confused for some reason and resorted to such a stupid trick as sending troops to retaliate, which made everything even worse.

Unable to clean up.

The palms and backs of my hands are full of flesh, but I don’t see Mr. Fang’s attitude. It can be regarded as a reminder of our old relationship and gave him great face.

Son! You are confused!"

…

While Zuo Liangyu was educating Zuo Mengeng, Li Ping was taking a walk on the bank of the Yangtze River. On the river not far away from him, there were many scattered cabins on the river with unknown owners. From time to time, people poked their heads in the cabins.

These scattered boats slowly appeared on the river near here last night, and they gathered more and more, and they were coming and going.

But Li Ping ignored them, let alone asked anyone to drive them away.

He still doesn't regret what he did yesterday, and he will never regret it.

But now, where should he go?

He needs to continue to wait for Zuo Liangyu's attitude.

Li Ping has realized that the relationship between Fang Guoan and Zuo Liangyu is by no means that simple.

Of course it's not that the two have a bad relationship.

But in the most turbulent and chaotic era of society, such as the late Ming Dynasty, the wariness and estrangement between them were almost natural and could not be eliminated.

Because Fang Guoan is the commander-in-chief of one side and already has his own connections at the top, his troops have too much independence and will one day fly away again.

This can be seen from the fact that Fang Guoan's army was vigorously suppressed by Zuo Liangyu in the expansion of the army and the arrangement of his army's garrison locations.

Otherwise, Fang Wuke, Fang Guoan's nephew, would not have become just a general in Xiangyang's crazy army expansion journey. Of course, maybe Fang Wuke may not be a good leader, and even Fang Guoan is not.

Dare to entrust him with the responsibility of leading heavy troops.

If Li Ping really wanted to run away, with the reaction speed of Fang Guoan's army, it would be impossible to capture any of Li Ping's soldiers and horses, and it would be impossible to build up the logistics camp.

Therefore, after Li Ping killed Fang Wuke, he did not urge the entire army to immediately go north to avoid disaster. Just to be on the safe side, he asked Song Baolai to take Zhao Lanyue and Gao Lei to take a boat to Huangpi for temporary refuge, and at the same time, he quickly mobilized to Huangpi.

People who can ride horses come to support.

He felt that Zuo Liangyu would probably live in mud.

A person's temperament can always be predicted from many aspects. Although it may not be accurate, it is often close to ten.

Of course, Song Baolai had strong objections to Li Ping's desire to stay and couldn't understand it. He almost fell out with Li Ping. However, Zhao Lanyue easily made Song Baolai shut up and took him away.
To be continued...