In the palace of the Prince of Longxi County, the house was full of distinguished guests, drinking and drinking among each other.
Present here are all Li Keyong's inner circle, including the mastermind Gaiyu, veteran minister Kang Junli, etc., plus his adopted sons, and several newly emerging young generals. They are gathered together in a warm atmosphere. It does not look like the Northern Expedition was all in vain.
.
"I heard that my sworn brother held a banquet on the grassland, and tens of thousands of people sat on the ground, eating and drinking together." Li Keyong's face was a little rosy, and he obviously drank a lot: "This thief has really gained momentum."
"When he was in Guanzhong, he should have been surrounded and killed."
"It's useless to say this now! This thief has tens of thousands of riders when he comes out, and they rush at him in a black mass. It's really hard to resist."
"Don't be despondent. Can we win with more troops? We only need to gather the best cavalry, use a hedge, and defeat the Chinese army. The situation will be greatly improved."
"This is the only way to deal with this thief."
Everyone was chatting and talking loudly. Li Siyuan was sitting over there. He originally wanted to say a few words, but finally sighed.
He had a not very reliable guess that Shao Thief might not play cavalry like this.
But there seems to be no basis for it. This man has conquered the grassland and Hexi several times, and he has always done it this way. Cavalry raids, all the way to the end, how else will he use them?
The servant walked quietly through the hall and heard something in Li Ke's ear.
Li Keyong waved his big hand and said: "Everyone, please calm down, Lingxia's envoy is here."
The crowd stopped making noises for a moment.
Under the guidance of his servant, Li Hang strode to the front of the hall.
The hall is still very luxurious.
The plum beams and guidong, the floating pillars with fine water, the mica-decorated windows, and the glazed tiles are more luxurious than the mansion built by the marshal on the hillside of Helan Mountain. It can be traced back to Ma Lin's palace in Chang'an. After Ma Lin's death, many common people mixed in.
The purpose of the mourning procession was to visit the luxurious residence of the Ma Lin family. After Dezong came to the throne, he ordered the "destroy of the central hall".
Li Hang walked in with his head held high and bowed first.
Li Keyong is the king of Longxi County and Shao Shude's sworn brother, so he deserves this gift, but there is no need for others.
After the ceremony, Li Hang stood there, looked at Li Keyong, and said: "Meet the Prince of Longxi County."
"I saw Li Biejia again. What's the business of coming here this time?" Li Keyong sat cross-legged behind the desk, playing with the meat cleaver boredly, and asked seemingly absentmindedly.
"My master sent me with a message, 'Brother, do you know that Quan Zhong wants to attack Sun Ru secretly with Yang Xing?'" Li Hang was dressed in white, with a solemn expression on his face and a frown on his face, as if he was really worried about Li Keyong.
"How did the sworn brother know?" Li Keyong continued to play with the meat cleaver.
"Quan Zhong sent an envoy to Chang'an to serve as the envoy to Huainan."
Li Keyong glanced at Gai Yu, who shook his head, indicating that he had not received the message.
"The King of Longxi County will find out in a few days. This matter cannot be false." Of course, Li Hang noticed their little move and added.
Li Keyong looked a little bad.
For the past ten years, he has been practicing a skill called "emotions and anger cannot be expressed in color", but it is obvious that the results have been little.
"Zhu Quanzhong, this thief, is extremely hateful, worse than -"
Gai Yu coughed.
Li Keyong stopped talking and said: "How can we defeat Sun Ru if we have secret troops and few generals?"
"Sun Confucianism has already learned that the houses in Yangzhou were burned down, and all the young men and women were driven across the river, and the old and weak were killed for food. This is the way to die." Li Hang said.
It is said that Sun Ru is a very capable guy. He had caused great harm to Yangzhou and was unable to raise an army, so he went to the south of the Yangtze River to plunder. The battle was going smoothly at first, but Yang Xingmi and Qian Liu were both defeated, and they had no choice but to meet him.
Due to the flood, the troops suffered heavy losses. In the end, they did not catch anything and retreated to the north of the Yangtze River in despair.
But Jiangbei could no longer afford to support his gang of beast soldiers, so he decided to abandon Yangzhou, and the entire army crossed the Yangtze River and moved south.
They burned down all the houses in the Yangzhou area, and held all the people captive, either as cannon fodder or killed for meat. They burned all the food that could not be taken away. They have now occupied Suzhou and set up camp in Guangde.
Yang Xingmi led his army to fight, but was surrounded by Sun Ru. In the end, he broke out desperately and fled in embarrassment.
But how can I put it, Sun Ru's behavior has made people and gods angry, and even God can't stand it. The last flood caused him to lose a lot of elite soldiers, and also caused many Cai soldiers to defect to Yang Xingmi. This time, he rescued Yang Xingmi and broke out.
, that is, Cai Bing and Cai General who took refuge in him.
Yang Xingmi could be defeated again and again, but Sun Ru could not withstand defeat.
"When Yang Xingmi defeats Sun Ru, I don't know how old the year of the monkey is." Li Keyong sneered.
"Sun Ru has gone to the south of the Yangtze River. Does the king of Longxi County think that he will return to the north of the Yangtze River?" Li Hang asked.
Yang Xingmi was just like Li Hanzhi and Zhang Quanyi at the time. When Sun Ru/Qin Zongquan attacked, they ran away. They couldn't defeat him anyway, so they escaped first. After Cai Bing left, they went to "pick up garbage" and put Cai Bing away.
Take back the territory you gave up.
Anyway, Cai soldiers are like rogue bandits, they wreak havoc wherever they go, with no long-term plan at all. They eat up one area, then change places, and then wreak havoc on the new territory until it is deserted for hundreds of miles, and then leave again.
The tactic of Yang Xingmi, Qian Liu, Zhang Quanyi, Li Hanzhi and others was to "wait for their own defeat", which was also the result of helplessness.
"Sun Ru went to the south of the Yangtze River, traveled to the north of the Yangtze River, and joined forces with Quanzhong. Quanzhong has no worries. He can send troops north to attack Shipu or Erzhu, and he will become more and more comfortable." Li Hang said:
"Shi Pu, the destruction is imminent. I wonder if the king of Longxi County is worried?"
Because he and Sun Ru turned against each other and Pang Shigun returned from the southern expedition to Yangzhou with a great defeat, Zhu Quanzhong had to deploy a considerable force on the southern front to guard against that crazy person - Sun Ru was so bold that he said, "After Ping Xuan, Bian, we should introduce troops to the dynasty.
Get rid of the evil on your side."
Who can say this is not crazy?
Marshal Shao immediately took his seat and felt that Sun Ru was really not a thing, so why did he attack me?
"It's so long-winded and rambling!" Li Keyong threw away the meat cleaver and said a little angrily: "How do you want your adopted brother to be treated? You might as well tell him directly."
"My commander-in-chief wants to join forces with the king of Longxi County to attack Zhu Quanzhong." Li Hang took a deep breath and said.
The buzzing, chewing, and clinking of glasses in the hall all disappeared in an instant, and it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
Li Keyong couldn't believe his ears. Is there such a good thing?
really?
"My commander-in-chief said that we were brothers with the King of Longxi County in Huayue Temple in the past. In recent years, we have moved less and are a bit unfamiliar, which is not the case. This time we send troops to conquer Quanzhong, we should fight with the King of Longxi County in Bianzhou City.
Drink and rebuild the old."
It sure sounds fake!
Li Ke squinted his left eye slightly and turned his right eye around, obviously weighing the pros and cons.
"May I ask where Xia Bing came from?" Seeing that his commander was silent, Gai Yu couldn't help but ask.
"Naturally, we should leave Shaanxi and Guo in the east and attack Henan Prefecture and Ruzhou. The Jin army can go out to Shangdang and attack Meng and Huaizhou. After that, the two families can join forces in Henan Prefecture and then attack Zheng and Bian. They will be defeated.
"Li Hang said.
Li Keyong and Gai Yu looked at each other and felt that this strategy was quite feasible.
The army from Hedong left Zezhou to attack Heyang, and Zhu Quanzhong definitely led his troops to fight. Then Xia's army left from Shaanxi and Guozhou to attack Zhang Quanyi. Quanzhong was flanked by enemies and his army was shaken. The chance was not small!
If the main force of Bianshi can be wiped out in Menghuai, wouldn't the land in Henan be taken freely?
Xia soldiers traveled thousands of miles to fight. How could they seize the land that was just around the corner from Hedong?
Li Keyong was hesitant, but he was determined to kill Zhu Quanzhong and could not hold on.
****
By the woods beside the Wo River, Shao Shude took his wife, concubines and children for a walk.
The nine-year-old second daughter Shao Mu is already a little reserved and does not want to play wildly with her younger brothers and sisters like she did when she was a child.
Da Feng accompanied her, and the two of them talked intimately.
Chengjie and Siwu discussed going to the salt pond to watch fish.
Shao Shude observed the two brothers carefully, wondering if there was any resentment between them.
These two brothers are destined to have different life trajectories.
If the education is not good, no matter how close we were when we were children, we will be alienated when we grow up.
The brothers turned against each other. Not only was it bad for them, but Shao Shude, the old father, felt bad too.
Zhao Yu peeled a few grapes for Shao Shude.
There are already crow's feet at the corners of her eyes, and her appearance is much worse than it was ten years ago.
But among all the wives and concubines, Shao Shude has special feelings for Zhao Yu. It is not only a matter between men and women, but also represents his own past.
When I saw Zhao Yu, I seemed to see myself who was still full of enthusiasm and a little immature.
Time is the most ruthless.
Power corrupts people's hearts the most.
He is becoming less and less like a modern person, and he is slipping more and more into the abyss of a warlord and martial artist! Shao Shude sighed, feeling that he could not find an anchor point. Sometimes he was empty, and sometimes he was full of violent emotions. He would not
Will he become like Sun Ru?
"Tongzhou Xingde Palace is already under renovation. I'll pack up my things and go live there for a while." Shao Shude held Zhao Yu in his arms and said softly.
"My concubine has grown old and her beauty has faded, so why do she go there to do so much?" Zhao Yu stuffed a grape into Shao Shude's mouth and said with a smile.
"You just gave birth to a child for me, which is not enough." Shao Shude said with a smile, "I must go."
Zhao Yu glanced at him worriedly: "Okay."
Shao Shude smiled happily. Seeing that there was no one around, he made a "random promise" and said: "One day when I become emperor, I will make you a noble concubine."
"The king must have made such a promise to others."
Shao Shude was speechless. He had no impression of it, but he seemed to have it.
Zhao Yu chuckled lightly, touched Shao Shude's face with his hand, and said, "Then I'm waiting to be a noble concubine."
Men also need to be coaxed, especially these warriors. They fight and kill all day long, and they also guard against rebellion and rebellion. If they are not careful, they can become extremely violent.
I don’t know what the women around Zhu Quanzhong and Li Keyong are like.
Zhao Yu heard that Zhu Quanzhong had met his wife Zhang by chance before he became rich, and fell in love with her. Many years later, they met in Tongzhou and were ecstatic. At that time, Zhang had already married, and Zhu Quanzhong didn't mind and married her.
My true wife, I respect you very much.
None of these warriors have peace of mind, and they all have devils hidden in their hearts.
"Commander, the bodyguards have packed up and are heading south to Huazhou." Zheng Yong, the tenth general of the bodyguards, lingered in the distance for a long time. After seeing Shao Shude getting up, he stepped forward to report.
The two thousand infantry and cavalry of the bodyguards are all under the command of Yulin and Woyang palaces. They are all full-time professional soldiers. There are tribal herdsmen offering cattle and sheep. They have been training for almost two years. This time they all went south to practice on the battlefield.
"Send orders to Shuofang and the prefectures in Weibei to prepare grain, grass, and equipment. As soon as the autumn harvest is over, the master will be recruited and transferred to Huazhou."
"The soldiers are packing up their luggage - it's not that fast. Let them wait until the Double Ninth Festival before setting off."
"As commanded."
The army is moving south!
Shao Shude also felt a little uneasy.
After all, this is the first time he has fought with the princes of the Central Plains. The shadow of the famous tree, Zhu Quanzhong, has such a great reputation!
Tens of thousands of elite soldiers from Xuanwu and more than 100,000 soldiers from Cai were recruited to fight in the south and north, and in the east and in the west. I don't know what their combat effectiveness is.
It would be great if Zhu Quanzhong could be defeated quickly! This country needs to retain as much energy as possible.
From the late Tang Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty, seven dynasties were constantly fighting each other.
The more people die, the more the people fight, the poorer they become, and the more the soldiers fight, the weaker they become. It is simply a vicious cycle.
The soldiers in the vassal town who had just pacified Huang Chao were probably the most elite.
Shao Shude remembered that in the Later Han Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty, due to the sharp decline in population and the collapse of the economy, the warriors could no longer pay their salaries normally. As a result, military discipline was worse than in the late Tang Dynasty, and the supply of equipment was not as good as before.
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, he didn't know how the imperial army at Zhao Kuangyin's hands was compared to now. It should be inferior.
At least in the later Tang Dynasty, they were able to defeat the many with less, and defeated the Khitans many times.
What Zhao Kuangyin has on hand is a bunch of spoiled uncle soldiers. No matter how skilled they are, the discipline and ethos are not enough.
But Zhao Kuangyin should not take the blame. From the late Tang Dynasty to the later Zhou Dynasty, everyone was responsible.
The economy is collapsing bit by bit, military discipline is deteriorating step by step, and people are also becoming rotten step by step.