Zhu Wen also knew that although the Li Tang Dynasty existed in name only, it was still the common ruler of the world on the surface, just like the Eastern Zhou Dynasty during the Warring States Period, and like the Han Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms Period. Although it did not have much strength, it still had charisma.

It is an invisible force.

Now that Qin Zongquan has proclaimed himself emperor and killed innocent people indiscriminately, which is unpopular, Zhu Wen took this opportunity to raise the banner of recruiting troops and expand his power by recruiting troops in the name of Prince Wuxing of the Tang Dynasty.

Because Qin Zongquan's ally Lu Yanhong provided Qin Zongquan's military deployment, Zhu Wen won great victories in the next few battles with advanced weapons and accurate intelligence, and Qin Zongquan retreated steadily.

To put it bluntly, Qin Zongquan can only be regarded as a grassroots bandit. He was a loyal military general, so how could he have any strategy for governing the country? He could only resort to militarism and start wars everywhere. What was even worse was that he proclaimed himself emperor prematurely, which put Qin Zongquan into a situation where he was surrounded by enemies on all sides.

What's more, there is Lu Yanhong, an ally who is selling information behind the scenes. How can there be any reason to be invincible?

But Zhu Wen has no good impression of Lu Yanhong. Of course, he will not let Lu Yanhong, a duplicitous guy, sit in Xuzhou, a military important place, for a long time. People like Lu Yanhong only have interests in their eyes and will not be loyal to anyone. Zhu Wen

He was also afraid that if he crossed Xuzhou and entered Caizhou to the west, Lu Yanhong would cut off his return route from behind. In that case, wouldn't his troops be alone?

Therefore, Zhu Wen was not in a hurry to march westward, but first stationed himself in Chenzhou to rest and recuperate. Zhao Yan, the governor of Chenzhou, was very grateful to Zhu Wen for his kindness in retreating from the enemy. So when he heard that Zhu Wen's troops had arrived in Chenzhou, he hurriedly

Go out of the city to meet him.

Zhu Wen asked Zhu Zhen and others to station the camp outside Chenzhou City. He took Zhang Guiba and Ge Congzhou into Chenzhou City to discuss with Zhao Ji how to deal with Qin Zongquan.

Nowadays, Chenzhou has experienced many wars, and traces of smoke and fire can be seen everywhere on the city walls, as well as cracks made by crossbows on huge rocks. However, Chenzhou’s city walls are taller and taller than before, and the moat is wider and deeper. Zhu Wen took a look

He couldn't help but secretly nod his head and thought to himself: "This Zhao Yan is an expert at defending the city. This Chenzhou City has been besieged and attacked by Huang Chao and Qin Zongquan for several years, but it has always stood firm. I have to say that Zhao Yan has contributed a lot."

Zhao Yan let Zhu Wen into the living room and ordered the banquet to be prepared. After some greetings, the guests and the host sat down. Zhao Yan said: "In recent years, Qin Zongquan has been plundering everywhere, and once besieged Chenzhou. There were only a few soldiers in Xiaguan City, so they could only defend the city. Fortunately,

The king of the county won a series of victories and sent his troops south, which forced Qin Zongquan to retreat. On behalf of the people of Chenzhou, the official thanked the king of the county for the kindness of retreating the enemy again." After saying this, he stood up and bowed down.

But he was stopped by Zhu Wen. Zhu Wen said: "Master Zhao has great righteousness and has protected the people of Chenzhou from being poisoned by Qin Zongquan. This is really a blessing to the people. It is only for the sake of the people of the world that we have to fight the Qin thieves."

, why bother saying thank you?”

Then Zhao Yan talked about Lu Yanhong who occupied Xuzhou, and indicated that Lu Yanhong was treacherous and cruel and should not be trusted.

Zhu Wen smiled and said: "This is the reason why I stationed troops in Chenzhou. After all, Xuzhou is in the hands of Lu Yanhong. If our army marches westward, I still feel a little uneasy. Only by occupying Xuzhou can the army calmly move westward."

Go forward and destroy the Qin Zongquan."

Zhao Yan asked doubtfully: "The prince wants to attack Xuzhou first?"

Zhu Wen shook his head and said: "It is not a good strategy to attack a city. Even if it can be defeated, it will definitely consume a lot of troops, money and food. It is better to use wisdom to defeat it."

Zhao Yan wanted to ask how to outwit him, but considering that this was a military secret, he had better not ask. If Zhu Wen wanted him to know, he would tell him without asking. If he didn't want him to know, even if it was

Even if I asked him, he might not be able to tell.

Sure enough, Zhu Wen said: "I think in a few days Xuzhou will go to war with the Qin thieves, and then you and I will just watch the tiger fight from the mountain."

Zhao Yan suddenly understood Zhu Wen's strategy and couldn't help but admire Zhu Wen even more.

Zhu Wen's move was really brilliant. He used the intelligence provided by Lu Yanhong to repeatedly defeat Qin Zongquan's troops, but recently he "accidentally" let Qin Zongquan's spies find out about the information he obtained from Lu Yanhong.

Qin Zongquan was definitely furious and was about to attack Lu Yanhong in the near future, but Zhu Wen rested his troops in Chenzhou and watched them dog bite dog. No matter who wins, Zhu Wen will be the final winner in the end.

Sure enough, five days later, Lu Yanhong sent his cronies to ask Zhu Wen for help, saying that Qin thieves were invading in large numbers, and asked Zhu Wen for support from Zhu Wen's army. Zhu Wen agreed, but on the pretext that the thieves' army was powerful, he could only wait for the backup and support of the brigade.

The troops can only be sent out after the soldiers and horses from other vassal towns have arrived.

Lu Yanhong seemed to understand Zhu Wen's intention now, and secretly regretted it in his heart, and scolded Zhu Wen for being a human being. But now it was too late, Qin Zongquan's army had already reached the city, and he couldn't explain it even if he wanted to.

It's clear that we can't defeat him again and again, so we can only defend the city.

But it is obvious that Lu Yanhong's ability to defend the city is not as good as Zhao Yan. Zhao Yan can rely on the city of Chenzhou to let Huang Chao's 200,000 troops besiege the city for more than 300 days without breaking it. Lu Yanhong only persisted in a big city like Xuzhou.

After a month, they were already powerless. Even if they wanted to abandon the city and leave, Qin Zongquan's general Zhang Hao led an army and surrounded Xuzhou.

Finally, Lu Yanhong couldn't hold on any longer, and Zhang Hao captured the city. Lu Yanhong himself also died fighting, ending his brutal and short military career, leaving only curses to future generations.

The war in Xuzhou has always been under Zhu Wen's attention. On the night when Zhang Hao occupied Xuzhou, Zhu Wen's army attacked Xuzhou at night, blew open the city gate with explosives, and captured Xuzhou in just one night.

, Zhang Hao originally suffered heavy losses when he attacked Lu Yanhong. How could he withstand the attack of Zhu Wen's fresh troops at this time? He could only escape back to Caizhou overnight.

Qin Zongquan was angry and killed this general who had been defeated many times. He ordered his younger brother Qin Xianshuai to attack Zhu Wen with his army, and asked the generals Sun Ru and Zhao Deqi who were fighting in the south to quickly return to the army to rescue Caizhou.

But now that Zhao Derian is occupying Xiangyang, he knows that Qin Zongquan has been defeated repeatedly and has already planned to make a living on his own. How can he be stupid enough to return to the army and fight Zhu Wen? But Zhao Derian is afraid that Qin Zongquan will cause trouble for him, so he has to send an envoy to find Zhu.

Wen expressed his willingness to abandon the dark side and join the bright side, and follow the imperial army to jointly annihilate the Qin Zongquan.

Zhu Wen was of course overjoyed when he received the news. He immediately went to the court and reported that Zhao Deqian was appointed as the governor of Shannan East Road and the deputy commander of Caizhou's camp to assist the vassal towns in jointly attacking Qin Zongquan.

Sun Ru is even more powerful. He can't even get rid of Qin Zongquan. Sun Ru is no less powerful than Qin Zongquan in terms of men and horses, and his combat effectiveness is even worse. Sun Ru is not the kind of person who has been under others for a long time. Now that his wings are hard, how can he still do it?

Obey orders and Qin Zongquan?

Qin Zongquan saw that both armies ignored him. The only available troops were the 20,000 troops led by Qin Xian and 50,000 of his own direct troops. Liu Jianfeng's 20,000 troops also had an ambiguous attitude and had always been unable to work.

The effort can only be used to build momentum, but it is of no use at all.

Fighting is a very expensive and time-consuming thing. Sometimes a battle can last for several months. Fortunately, Qin Zongquan's defeat has been determined. After Zhu Wen occupied Xuzhou, he nominally defeated Zhao Yan.

As the military envoy of the Zhongwu Army, Xuzhou actually became Zhu Wen's frontline base. All money and food were transported from the rear to Xuzhou first, and then to the frontline.

Zhu Zhen, Li Tangbin, Ge Congzhou and others were all stationed in Xuzhou, ready to attack Caizhou at any time.

At this time, it was already the first month of the third year of Guangqi. As time went by, Zhu Wen had become a general who had been tempered in the flames of war. Zhu Zhen, Li Tangbin, Ge Congzhou, Pang Shigu, and Huo Cun had also become generals.

He defeated his five tiger generals and followed Zhu Wen to fight on the front line of Caizhou.

Zhu Wen also replaced Shi Pu, who had not done much, and became the commander of all the camps in Caizhou. He controlled the Xuanwu Army, Sannandongdao, Taining Army, Tianping Army, Xuanhua Army, Yicheng Army and other vassal forces to besiege Caizhou. Qin Zongquan

Destruction is not far away.

Many major events have happened in the past two years. After Li Keyong and Wang Chongrong launched Chang'an, Zhu Mei, the governor of the Jingnan Army (Xing Ning Army), occupied Chang'an. Li Xuan was rushed to Xingyuan by Tian Lingzi, and Zhu Mei supported Xiang Wang Li

He ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor. He wanted to coerce the emperor and command the princes, but unexpectedly no one responded. Occupying an empty city in Chang'an had no strategic significance at all, and he was reviled.

All the vassal towns petitioned to have Tian Lingzi killed. Tian Lingzi knew that he was not tolerated by the vassal towns all over the world, so he had no choice but to defect to his brother Chen Jingxuan in Xichuan and serve as military supervisor in Xichuan.

In the south of the Yangtze River, Dong Chang and Qian Liu had already killed Liu Hanhong and annexed Liu Hanhong's power. Dong Chang occupied Yuezhou and appointed Qian Liu as the governor of Hangzhou.

An Shiru, the governor of the Yicheng Army, was incompetent and incompetent in running the army, which led to a mutiny among the sergeants. Zhu Wen took the opportunity to send Zhu Zhen, Hu Zhen, Xu Huaiyu and others to send out surprise troops to occupy Huazhou and appease the army and the people. Hu Zhen was left to take charge of Huazhou.

After the state was temporarily reserved for the Yicheng Army, Zhu Wen petitioned Li Zhang to appoint Hu Zhen as the governor of the Yicheng Army. From then on, Zhu Wen occupied the Xuanwu Army and the Yicheng Army and owned two towns, but in fact Zhao

The Zhongwu Army under which Ji served as Jiedushi was also Zhu Wen's power. It can be said that Zhu Wen's power has now reached the peak of all vassals.

No matter in terms of military strength or territory, none of the vassal towns could compare with Zhu Wen.

Zhuge Shuang, the military governor of Heyang, died of illness. His son Zhuge Zhongfang took over as the military governor of Heyang. Generals Liu Jing, Li Hanzhi, and Zhang Quanyi (Zhang Yan) were at odds with each other and attacked and defended each other. However, Sun Ru took the opportunity to capture Heyang.

, Jiedushi Zhuge Zhongfang fled to Bianliang and took refuge with Zhu Wen.

From then on, Zhu Wen's name was powerful in the Central Plains, and his military strength was unparalleled. He became a backbone force in dealing with the rebel Qin Zongquan.

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Chapter completed!