"If I cherish my own life, I will never return to Luzhou City after Mr. Du passes away!"
Lu Fengtai gave a loud drink, looked at Nie Zhongyou for a long time, and finally sighed: "The situation in Huaiyou is not what it used to be. If nothing else, even I know that the military pay has been delayed for a year, and the defense at the top of the city has been delayed for three years.
It has not been repaired for many years. In these years, the army and the people of Huaiyou have worked together to fight against the Mongols, and it is really coming to an end. You ask me what I need to prepare? I can’t say, but at least...wait for the money from the transportation department to come down? "
Nie Zhongyou shook his head, picked up the knife, and started drawing on the ground.
What he drew was a simple map, and he was talking at the same time.
"Do you know why there is no military pay? After the Mongolian army destroyed Dali, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hunan became the front line. The imperial court had to divide its troops and go south to build a new line of defense. This caused a huge financial deficit..."
Nie Zhongyou may have just heard something about this from a certain important minister. He obviously did not have a deep understanding of the matter of wealth and could only use words like "big deficit".
As he spoke, he had finished drawing the map.
Li Xia was originally a little confused... Mongolia was in the north and Dali was in the south. How could the Mongolian army destroy Dali first instead of destroying Song Dynasty first?
But now that he saw it, he understood.
Now the Mongol Khanate has conquered most of Asia, and its territory can surround the entire Song Dynasty.
In other words, its territory was completely connected to the west of the Song Dynasty.
Anyway, according to Nie Zhongyou's painting, after the destruction of Dali, the Song Dynasty would border on the Mongol Khanate as long as it was not near the sea.
Of course, this was only painted by Nie Zhongyou. There should still be some small countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia, but he was too lazy to draw them.
After Nie Zhongyou finished drawing the map, he tapped the southwest direction on the map.
"You said that the Huaiyou Army is poorly paid, but if the problem of Dali Kingdom is not solved, the court's deficit will only get bigger year by year. And I was ordered to come here precisely because the ministers in the court are trying to solve this matter."
"Excuse." Lu Fengtai shook his head and sneered: "Isn't it ridiculous to use the affairs of a foreign country thousands of miles away as an excuse to suffer losses, to deprive us big-headed soldiers?"
He waved his hand and said: "Brother Nie, don't be deceived. How did the deficit come about? Is it related to the destruction of Dali? I don't care about these things, no matter what the important officials in the court say, I only know that right now this
At that time, Huaiyou will not be able to fight this battle."
"In any case, we should try our best to help the remnants of Dali to fight against the Mongols." Nie Zhongyou said again: "Do you know about the 'abdomen'? The Mongols hunted prey by surrounding them on all sides and attacking their soft belly. They destroyed Dali for
What I do is to be able to attack our Song Dynasty’s hinterland. And what I do is not to care about the fate of other countries, but to protect our own hinterland.”
"The country of Dali has been destroyed. This is irreversible. What is the top priority? It is to arrange the defenses of the Huaihe River and delay the Mongolian army from going south, instead of acting recklessly like you and giving the Mongols an excuse."
"Don't deceive yourself. How can we expect others not to hit us if we keep our tail between our legs? Since Du Xianggong left, the officers and soldiers of Huaiyou have become such greedy and fearful people?!"
"Are you mentioning Xianggong Du? Let me tell you something. When the Jin Kingdom was newly destroyed, the imperial court insisted on regaining the three capitals. Du Xianggong strongly opposed it, but he couldn't stop those 'enthusiastic' people like you at that time, so he vowed
After setting off from Heluo and retaking the three capitals, the whole court was in a state of excitement. But what was the result? A slight provocation on the border attracted the Mongolian army to attack. Half of the 60,000 troops were killed north of the Huaihe River. Not even an inch of land was gained. The officials were guilty, and the soldiers and the people were frightened!
"
Lu Fengtai's eyes turned red when he said this, he calmed down his anger, and said earnestly: "I don't know who is behind you, but to be involved in this matter and to be in contact with Lieutenant Lu, he must be an important minister in the court, why can't he eat one?"
Is wisdom coming from the chasm? Don’t use that reckless enthusiasm to hinder the great cause of the family and the country, okay?!”
"Who is hindering the great cause of our country?!"
"Nie Zhongyou, can you listen to my advice?!"
"Lu Fengtai, have you become a dog in the footsteps of the peace-seeking faction now?!"
Li Xia thought the two were about to fight, but saw them staring at each other for a while, their chests rising and falling, and finally they calmed down.
Lu Fengtai said: "I advise you, if you see those fugitives, leave them to me."
Nie Zhongyou said: "You have said so, and you are still unwilling to let them go? They are also resisting Mongolia, and you want to hand over the comrades who are fighting alongside us to the enemy?"
"The Dali people are foreigners, not my comrades fighting alongside me."
Lu Fengtai shook off these words, turned around and walked out. After thinking about it for a while, he sighed: "Brother Nie, I am following orders, don't blame me."
Nie Zhongyou said calmly: "I am also following orders."
~~
After Lu Fengtai left the guest room, Nie Zhongyou turned to Li Xia and asked, "Do you understand everything?"
"Probably." Li Xia said, "I don't know the really meaningful details yet."
Nie Zhongyou asked: "Do you think Lu Fengtai has caught the person we are looking for?"
Li Xia asked, "How many of these remaining members of the Gao family are there?"
"Five."
"Lu Fengtai must have not caught everyone, otherwise he wouldn't have left the old man waiting in Changfeng Street, and he wouldn't have come to test you."
"Do you think he has any other purpose for coming to me?"
Li Xia said: "He sent someone to spy on us, and you discovered it, otherwise he might have been spying on us. He came to you because he wanted to alert the snake, so that you can find the rest of the Gao family as soon as possible, so that he can catch people and make trouble. This shows that he
His errand is time-limited, and he is in a hurry than we are."
"I don't have much time to spend here."
"oh."
"I plan to leave this matter to you."
"You believe me?"
"At least, you will definitely not be inserted into the team by the peace-seeking faction."
Saying this, Li Xia suddenly felt that Nie Zhongyou was not easy either, and said thoughtfully: "But Lu Fengtai has already seen me just now."
Nie Zhongyou said: "I did it on purpose. I will give the token to you and you will go out to find the person. At the same time, I will send a soldier to visit secretly. In this way, you are in the light and he is in the dark. Lu Fengtai will think that he is in the dark.
is the point."
"oh."
"But in fact, you are the one who really wants to have contact with Mr. Gao on the surface."
Li Xia said: "Your deception is not very clever. Lu Fengtai will definitely send someone to monitor me."
Nie Zhongyou: "But you are very smart. I believe you can avoid his eyes and find Mr. Gao."
"Then what do you do?"
"I will contain Lu Fengtai and wait until you bring the Gao family out of Luzhou safely, then I will join you."
"Okay." Li Xia reached out and took the copper token and said, "Tell me the characteristics of those people."
Nie Zhongyou said: "I don't know either..."
~~
Lu Fengtai left the inn, walked around the long street, and after making sure that Nie Zhongyu had not sent anyone to follow him, he walked into a teahouse.
This teahouse is only separated from the back door of Taiping Inn by an alley. From the teahouse, you can just see the guest house where Nie Zhongyou lives.
He drank a cup of tea and looked at the guest house in the distance when he saw a man dressed as a caravan guard walking into Nie Zhongyou's house.
After a while, Li Xia, dressed in white, walked out of the house, stood in the guest house for a while, looked around, and left the inn.
"Fan San, go and keep an eye on him." Lu Fengtai ordered.
"yes."
Fan San cupped his hands in response and hurriedly left the teahouse.
Lu Fengtai was still sitting and drinking tea, continuing to stare at Nie Zhongyou's house in the distance.
However, after drinking a whole pot of tea, the caravan guard was still nowhere to be seen.
Lu Fengtai smiled slightly and turned his head to look at the stairs.
After a while, a subordinate came up quickly and reported in a low voice: "Du Tou, as expected, someone secretly climbed out of the courtyard wall of Chengtian Inn. He is very skilled. Two brothers have followed him..."