News of Zhong Mu's defeat reached the palace. This time Emperor Qian Ying did not get angry, but in his heart he began to look squarely at Tang Aolai.
He had never taken Tang Ao seriously before, and the poor land of Jizhou was not in his eyes. Even though the opponent defeated the Guzhou Army, the Beidi Army and the Huns one after another, he still didn't take him too seriously.
Tang Qingchuan believed that this was just good luck. Jizhou's foundation was too weak to have any development prospects. As long as Tang Ao was subordinated to Jizhou, he would be trapped even if he was a dragon.
Even if Le Ming returned from defeat, the angry Emperor Qian Ying still regarded Tang Ao as his real enemy. He had already learned that the opponent relied on sneak attacks to win, and it was only because Le Ming underestimated the enemy. But this time Zhong Mu He also returned with a heavy defeat, and the one he lost was Jizhou heavy cavalry, so he had to pay attention to it.
Heavy cavalry! In an era without firearms, it represented the existence of the highest combat power. Even with Tang Qingchuan's years of hard work, he only had four thousand cavalry, which he regarded as the most important combat power and trump card.
The small Jicheng City actually had cavalry, and they were heavy cavalry. This forced Tang Qingchuan to re-estimate Tang Ao's strength.
Although he had underestimated Tang Ao before, Tang Qingchuan had never doubted this man's ability to make money. He just didn't expect that the other party could not only make money, but also spend money. He was even willing to invest in the construction of heavy cavalry, and he also got him out of it. On such a scale, he can no longer despise it.
If it weren't for the fact that winter was about to enter the north, which was not conducive to the march of the army; if there hadn't been news that King Qing was preparing to send troops, Tang Qingchuan would have considered whether to mobilize his army to destroy Tang Ao first and solve the problem first. Let’s talk about this worry later.
King Qing was about to raise his troops and received help from the barbarians. Tang Qingchuan did not dare to be careless, so he had to look away from Tang Ao and consider preparations for war. Of course, Tang Qingchuan had no intention of Tang Ao. Let it develop, he has decided to leave the matter of King Ji to the former Princess Di. He believes that this woman will not let him down.
The former Princess Di wanted to deal with Tang Ao, which she proposed on her own initiative.
If possible, the former Princess Di really didn't want to be an enemy of Tang Ao. But Fang Xiong's occupation of Jizhou completely blocked her move to restore the country. In other words, if she wants to achieve her goal in life, Tang Ao is a stumbling block. The kind of person who has to be kicked away.
But facing the Jizhou Army, which could even defeat the Liaozhou Army, the former Princess Di would not raise her troops. She only had five thousand soldiers. With this number of people, she had no chance of winning whether they were attacking Jizhou or Guzhou. .
Even if Tang Ao could not be defeated on the battlefield, the former Princess Di had to consider another possibility, which was to assassinate Tang Ao in order to destabilize Jizhou and then seize Jizhou with the help of the British Emperor's army.
The development of the former Princess Di to this day, which made several emperors jealous even in her early twenties, was not only due to her clever mind, she also had another weapon, which was the sufficient force left to her by her father before his death. .
For example, the master master Shen Tuwei, the young master Xiaoyao whom she had taken advantage of before, or the other master master Bei Mingce who had been in contact with her but was used as a trump card by her.
Thanks to the fact that her father liked to make friends with heroes when he was young and had provided a lot of support, the former Princess Di was able to get to know many powerful forces in the world. Among them, Bei Mingce was very powerful, but he was usually very low-key.
figure.
Thinking that if this person takes action, there is still a lot of chance of winning against Tang Ao. The former Princess Di carefully took out a round jade pendant that seemed to be of good quality from her purse, "Lu Kui, hang this on the beam.
Visit all the leather goods stores in the city."
Princess Di did not know where Bei Mingce was exactly, but the letter left by her father once said that Bei Mingce had an organization of fur traders spread across many places. And this round jade pendant is
When King Bei Di helped Bei Mingce, he left a token, saying that it would help him do something to repay his kindness. This time, the former Princess Di was a bit lucky.
Carefully taking the jade pendant and hanging it on his waist, Lu Kui respectfully clasped his fists and left, taking away a glimmer of hope from the former Princess Di.
...
Xinzhou, Wucheng.
All the generals gathered together. The King of Qing, Tang Dong, was higher than the leader. Next to him was his teacher Fan Shitong, who was also the army's strategist and the actual manager of the food, grass and baggage.
When Fan Shitong escaped from Daliang with King Qing, in addition to some officials, he also took away all the wealth of the Fan family in the capital, and even his younger brother Fan Shixi also came with him. This was the capital for King Qing to turn around.
.
It was with enough food and wages that King Qing was able to summon the troops of the three states to use for him this time.
These three states are Xinzhou, under the command of General Fei Qingsong; Suzhou, under the command of General Tailei, and the great barbarian prince Obike.
For this crusade, Xinzhou sent 50,000 (foot) troops, Suzhou sent 50,000 (steps) troops, and the barbarians sent 30,000 (cavalry) troops, plus 20,000 new soldiers recruited by the Fan family with money, for a total of 150,000
People, known to the outside world as being 200,000 people.
In troubled times, having an army in hand means that everything is possible, and King Qing has the capital to fight for the world.
If he had some guilt when facing Tang Qingchuan before, after all, the so-called people of the three states were not united and could not be fully used by him. Once the war did not go smoothly, what would happen?
It might happen. But as the news came from the front that the Jizhou Army defeated the Liaozhou Army, it was like a shot in the arm, strengthening King Qing's confidence and determination to win.
The Jizhou Army was small in number and had always been in a corner, but it was able to defeat the Liaozhou Army. In this way, Tang Qingchuan didn't have anything to fear, right?
This reason, spoken by King Qing, strengthened the confidence of the generals of the three states. More importantly, King Qing made various promises, such as once he defeated Tang Qingchuan and could take over Daliang City,
He will divide the world equally with the soldiers and horses of these three states, giving them the same status as the current King of Jin, King of Qi, King of Southern Wu, and King of Western Shu.
This can be regarded as a serious promise. The barbarians were the first to be moved. What they lacked after living in the west for a long time was the space for development and sufficient population. But now, with hope in front of them, the barbarian king sent all the eldest princes to express their hope.
His support.
Fei Qingsong and Tai Lei are also ambitious people (it is said that under the generous treatment given by Da Gan to the vassal king, whoever becomes the commander-in-chief of a state with autonomy will probably have the same ambition), and now the opportunity is
With everything in front of us, there was no reason not to fight for it. In addition, Prince Qing was the eldest son of the late emperor, so it was reasonable to support him. Everyone hit it off immediately, and this time they got together to discuss the matter of launching an army to attack the Liaozhou army.
This meeting lasted for two days, during which everyone clarified their respective responsibilities and the various benefits they would get after the victory of the war. After King Qing deliberately gave up some benefits, in the end all the generals were in a very good mood. Looking satisfied, they jointly agreed to send out troops in three days. They would be led by King Qing and rush to Daliang City.
On the day the meeting ended, the intelligence personnel of the Liaozhou Army found out the news and sent it out immediately. Five days later, when the news reached the ears of Tang Qingchuan, the imperial palace in Daliang City, he was furious.
As a majestic loyal king, the current Emperor Qian Ying, no one in the world can be placed in the eyes of Tang Qingchuan. Even if King Qing wants to be his enemy, he will just fight. It just so happens that he can take advantage of this Taking advantage of the opportunity of the war, he wanted everyone in the world to know how powerful he was as Emperor Ying.
Tang Qingchuan decided to go on a personal expedition, leading a total of 250,000 troops. It was said that 300,000 people were marching out of Maxi to Chengde, where he would start a decisive battle with the incoming army of King Qing. At this moment, the eyes of all the vassal kings and all the forces could not help but The attack fell on Chengde Mansion, the western gate of Jizhou, and everyone secretly speculated on the possible outcome of this battle.
Compared to other people's doubts or speculations, Tang Ao, who was in Guzhou, confidently said to Han Ce who had just arrived from Jizhou: "The winner will definitely be Tang Qingchuan."
"Oh, why?" Originally he just asked out of curiosity, but he didn't expect that Tang Ao would answer like this, and Han Ce wanted to know the reason.
"I don't know the specific reason, but King Zhong has been planning for so many years. How could he be destroyed by someone else sending out troops at will? In contrast, the preparation time of King Qing's army, which was just a ragtag army, was too short, and it was difficult to say that it had no foundation. There is a chance of victory."
"Your Highness, you mean that King Qing's army will be defeated because of disunity?" Han Ce said in horror after hearing the key point in these words.
"This is just one of them. There are many others, such as the weather, the supply of food and grass, etc. In short, it is not whoever has the most people will win. The weather, the right location, and the combination of people all need to be taken into consideration. If If these are not the advantages, then we have to consider using surprise troops. But looking at the formation that King Qing has set up now, it is clear that he is going to fight head-on. I really don’t know where his advantages and confidence lie." Tang Ao shook his head as he spoke. He shook his head.
Although he was not optimistic about King Qing, he was still happy to see King Qing provoking Tang Qingchuan. Firstly, it diverted the target of the Liaozhou Army from himself, and secondly, no matter who won in the end, he would You might become that fisherman, right?
"Okay, let's not talk about this. Whoever wins will definitely not let us go in the end, and will still regard us as opponents. Then what we should do most is to seize this time to develop and strengthen ourselves. Mr. Han, now we have With the land of two states, we can consider the issue of the imperial examination system, how to select a large number of available talents, and how to strengthen our foundation in a short period of time, so that we will not be in trouble when we take a big step forward."
