Li Jing's eyes were red, and the tears on his face were not dry. He prayed all night in front of his father Li Min's shrine last night, and he didn't even close his eyes for a moment.
Because as soon as he closed his eyes, he would see himself in a sea of blood.
In the distance were thousands of troops, and all the people he loved dearly, including Queen Zhong, the eldest son Li Hongji, the second son Li Hongmao, the sixth son Li Congjia (Li Yu), and the seventh son Li Congshan, were chopped down one by one in a pool of blood.
Li Jing cried desperately. He wished he could save the lives of his wife and children, but his body could not move at all.
Especially Queen Zhong, who has known Li Jing since childhood. They are like childhood sweethearts and are extremely affectionate.
Li Jing was extravagant, but there were only two named concubines in history. Zhong alone gave birth to Li Hongji, Li Hongmao, Li Congjia, Li Congshan, Li Congqian and two of Li Jing's three daughters.
The good relationship between husband and wife is evident.
When Li Jing came out of the ancestral temple, she saw Wei Cen kneeling beside him, with fierce hatred in his eyes.
Because Wei Cen was unwilling to cooperate, Li Jingrun's plan to go to Hongzhou didn't even have a chance to be proposed.
Wei Cen also knew that he had completely offended Li Jing, but he was also unjust! Who knew that Lord Zhou went straight to Caishiji, blocking the road to Hongzhou.
"I sincerely ask your Majesty to take heart. We still have 20,000 troops around the Western Capital, and we can deploy defenses along the Qinhuai River.
He Jingzhu is a handsome man, Wang Jianfeng, Huangfu Hui and others are all brave generals who can defeat ten thousand enemies. Jiangning City has enough food and grass, so we will definitely be able to defend it."
Sun Cheng felt extremely uncomfortable when he saw Li Jing's behavior. Others had no choice but to defect to Southern Tang, but Sun Cheng really fell in love with it when he arrived in Southern Tang.
In Sun Cheng's eyes, the Southern Tang Dynasty was still a separatist country, and even though Li Jing was not good at all, there was one thing he was good about.
Compared with the Central Plains warriors who despised civil servants, Li Min, the martyr of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and Li Jing, the Baoda Emperor and his son, promoted culture and education, respected etiquette, opened schools, and held imperial examinations, which is rare in the past few hundred years.
Therefore, Sun Cheng cherished the country of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Historically, when he was sent as an envoy to the Later Zhou Dynasty, Guo Rong asked him about the reality of the Southern Tang Dynasty, but Sun Cheng refused to talk.
It wasn't until Guo Rong ordered Cao Han to read out the edict conferring death on Sun Cheng that Sun Cheng straightened his clothes, bowed to the south, and said, "I would like to die to serve the country!"
Li Jing originally wanted to reprimand Sun Cheng, because more than 100,000 people before and after him could not defeat the Zhou army. Now there are only more than 20,000 people left. There is no natural danger in the Yangtze River and they can only defend the Qinhuai River. What else can be said to be able to defend it?
But when Li Jing saw that Sun Cheng's eyes were bloodshot and his face was filled with sadness, he could no longer reprimand him and just said with a wry smile.
"Xiangong Sun, there is no need to comfort the orphan. Master Zhou is so powerful. I only have 20,000 remaining soldiers. How can I stop the Qinhuai River?"
Sun Cheng raised his hand and said, "At this critical moment, it is better to give Liu Renzhan full authority and let him take charge of the Huaixi armies and lead the Chaohu Navy to station troops in the upper reaches to threaten the Zhou army's retreat and make the Zhou Lord dare not act rashly."
Li Jing thought for a while, then nodded slowly, but then sighed again.
"Yao Yanhong and his son followed the three generations of emperors Yizu, Liezu and Gu. When they encountered a slight setback, they took refuge in Wuyue with their entire family.
Liu Renzhan's father was born under King Zhongwu, and now that the Yang family has been acquired by the Zhou Kingdom, do you know whether it is a blessing or a curse?"
Now Sun Cheng has nothing to say. In the past, Li Jing did not use Liu Renzhan, but this was actually based on practical considerations.
Because Liu Renzhan's father, Liu Jin, was originally a confidant under King Wu Yang Xingmi, and was one of the famous Thirty-Six Heroes of Huainan. Liu Renzhan's eldest brother Liu Rengui even married Yang Xingmi's daughter.
Moreover, since Liu Renzhan's father Liu Jin was appointed as the training envoy of the Haozhou regiment, most of the military positions in Shouzhou, Haozhou and Sizhou were occupied by the Liu family.
Liu Renzhan was originally serving as a military envoy in Wuchang, but because Li Jing was worried about his brother Liu Rengui, he transferred Liu Renzhan back.
Because compared to Liu Rengui, who was Yang Xingmi's son-in-law, Liu Renzhan was still more reliable.
The Huang family, where Huang Yanqian, the governor of the Luzhou Baoxin Army, was actually the thorn in the Southern Tang Dynasty's hand in containing the Liu family in Huaixi.
Therefore, it was absolutely impossible for Li Jing to hand over Luzhou to Liu Renzhan unless he had no last resort.
But at this moment, I couldn't care about anything else.
Although Sun Cheng suggested that Li Jing agree to Liu Renzhan's request, he didn't know whether Liu Renzhan was reliable, and the emperor and his ministers were speechless for a while.
Sun Cheng was about to say a few more words when he saw a flying horse coming from afar. The guards on the left and right immediately formed a defensive formation to protect Li Jing and Sun Cheng in the middle.
Li Jing was so frightened that he thought it was the Zhou army's cavalry who was attacking him. He was so frightened that he trembled all over. However, Sun Cheng's eyes were sharp and he immediately recognized that the person who came was not the Zhou cavalry, but Han Xizai.
"Uncle Yan, why are you in such a panic? It is a grave sin to gallop before the emperor!"
Sun Cheng saw clearly who it was and immediately started to shout loudly. Li Jing also saw clearly that the person coming was Han Xizai and finally stopped fighting with both legs.
With tears in his eyes, Han Xizai bowed to the ground and said with sobs: "The saint is so happy, so happy!"
Hearing the great joy, Li Jing immediately came to life. He pushed aside the Forbidden Army soldiers around him and ran to Han Xizai. He couldn't wait to ask: "What's the joy? But the Zhou army was blocked by Huaixi soldiers and horses?"
Han Xizai shook his head and said loudly: "Zhou Lord has led his troops to Hezhou, but he did not cross the river immediately.
He also wrote a poem on Jilong Mountain, which said: "If the carriages and letters of thousands of miles are confused, there will be no other frontiers in the south of the Yangtze River. With a million soldiers on the West Lake, they will immediately reach the top of Wushan Mountain."
"Thousands of miles of carriages and letters are confused, and there is no other frontier in the south of the Yangtze River. With a million soldiers on the West Lake, they immediately rode to the top of Wushan Mountain." Li Jing immediately recited Zhang Zhao's poem written by Han Xizai.
Not to mention anything else, just talking about poetry, Li Jing is also a poet who can write "The drizzle dreams of returning to the chicken plug far away, the small building blows through the cold jade pipe. How many tears are filled with endless hatred, leaning on the railing." That is also a poet.
He recited it once, and immediately felt the exquisiteness of the poem "composed" by Zhang Zhao, and Li Jing sighed.
"What a poem! What a domineering spirit! If he started from Hexi and was assisted by an old servant, he could become the leader of most of the world in fifteen years. I am not as good as him!"
It's so wonderful. Others said that Zhang Zhao was terrifying ten thousand times, and the Zhou army continuously killed more than one hundred thousand elite soldiers of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Zhang Zhao's image in Li Jing's heart was still very similar.
But as soon as the poem came out, Li Jing felt like Zhang Zhao was staring at him with majesty in mid-air. His heart felt heavy and it seemed that he had difficulty breathing.
Sun Cheng's literary skills were slightly inferior and he did not realize the other meaning of this poem. When he heard Han Xizai running over like this and reciting Zhang Zhao's poem, he suddenly felt baffled.
"The great joy my uncle spoke of, where does the joy come from?"
However, before Han Xizai could answer, Li Jing let out a long sigh of relief.
"Master Zhou has returned north. He is warning me and Qian Zuo!
If we wanted to destroy the Tang Dynasty, we would not write about raising troops to the West Lake and immediately marching to Wushan, but we would write about raising troops to Qinhuai and riding to Jiangshan."
"Sage Ming Jian, after hearing that Yao Yanhong was not satisfied with the money Zuo had collected, he dared to report to the Lord of Zhou that he was willing to send troops to attack our country.
But before, when he went to pay tribute to the Lord of Zhou, he only sent a fifth-rank official, which was obviously not respectful.
There is a strong enemy in the north this week. The people in the north are not used to the humidity and heat in the south of the Yangtze River. If they capture Jiangning, they will only be able to gain an advantage over Wu Yue in the end.
When the time comes for the Qian family to have Jiangnan, and the Nanping Gao family to seize Wuchang, he will definitely not want to see it, so he wrote to raise troops to the West Lake and immediately mount Wushan to beat Qian Zuo." Han Xizai was also overjoyed and followed Li Jing.
Go down.
Li Jing even nodded in agreement, "If the Wanli chariots and books are mixed up, there are no other borders in the south of the Yangtze River. Lord Zhou is saying that he will unify the country. This is his ambition, and Wu Yue is no exception.
The last two sentences are a warning, telling Qian Zuo not to occupy more territory, because he will attack Wushan immediately when the time comes."
I have to say that Li Jing's explanation was really a blind cat meeting a dead mouse, and Zhang Zhao would probably be confused here.
He wrote this poem because he plagiarized it. With Zhang Shengren's little ink, if you ask him to kill people, he will have no problem now. If you ask him to write a poem, even if it is to change the poem, he will not be able to do it in a hurry.
.
But, but, if Li Jing understands it this way, there is no problem.
Because Zhang Zhao just wants him to kneel down and beg for mercy. This thing is so wonderful.
At this moment, Li Jing also thought about it. After experiencing the tragic situation of his wife and children being killed in Dream Demon, and being shocked by Zhang Zhao's poems, Li Jing, who was more into this kind of thing, just wanted to save his life at this moment.
"Summon Feng Yanlu quickly!" Li Jing shouted to the chamberlain beside him, and then said to Han Xizai.
"Uncle Yan, would you like to go to Caishiji with Feng Yanlu at starry night to meet the Lord of Zhou? I, Li Jing, am willing to apologize for disturbing the land of Song and Xu."
When Han Xizai heard Li Jing call him uncle, he couldn't help but think of the relationship between Li Jing and his emperor and his ministers when Li Jing was in the mansion in the past, and he was very moved.
"I am willing, even if I die, I will successfully dissuade Lord Zhou."
.
.
When the news reached Qian Yue, Qian Zuo, who was in Hangzhou, the western capital, was also quite confused.
It's like a child who was a bit clever and acted a little bit. He expected to be scolded at most, but ended up being slapped in the face by his loving father.
Seeing that Qian Zuo was confused, Qian became the bigger general and went to the palace with sword shoes. Hu Jinsi put his hand on the hilt of his sword, looked directly at Qian Zuo and shouted loudly.
"I, the two kings of Wu and Yue, both paid tribute and submitted to the emperor of the Central Plains. The land of Wu and Yue is also the land of the country. Otherwise, how could the two towns exist?
Today, Emperor Shaoming of the Great Zhou Dynasty has become the lord of the Central Plains, but the king has not yet received the reward. I ask the king to select envoys and go to Yangzhou to see him.
The Emperor orders us to attack Wu and Tang from a flank, so we shall attack from a flank. If the Emperor orders us to keep our duty, we shall keep our duty."
In Hu Jinsi's words, there were actually only two pieces of information he wanted to say, that is, Qian Zuo had not yet been canonized by the new dynasty, which undermined the legal principles, and the second one was to stick to his duty.
What should I say about the country Qian Yue? It is actually the most similar to the Tang Dynasty or the Han Dynasty among the Ten Kingdoms of the Five Dynasties.
Because its founding king Qian Liu was a native of Hangzhou, the western capital, he relied on the local wealthy families in Hangzhou and the Badu soldiers formed by them.
When Qian Liu was still alive, he recruited Sun Ru to surrender his troops to the capital of Wuyong and set them as Jiedu Yabing, hoping to use them to balance the local power.
However, these brave soldiers composed of Caizhou people could not completely suppress the Badu soldiers composed of local people.
Even when Qian Liu was alive, the battles between the two sides were very fierce, and Wu Yong even responded with rebellion several times.
Therefore, the throne of King Qian Yue actually sits on the seesaw of suppressing the foreign military faction headed by Wu Yongdu and the local powerful faction named Badu Bing.
This stubborn problem that even the founding king could not solve was certainly not solved by Qian Yuanguan later.
In Qian's hands, he was young and ambitious, and could also be said to be a bit ignorant, so he wanted to get rid of this political situation.
Interfering with Wang Min, killing Du Zhaoda, and killing Kan Fan were the signals for Qian Zuo to reorganize the country.
This time to recruit Yao Yanzhang, he also went to Changzhou in the Southern Tang Dynasty to gain power and improve his reputation by taking advantage of the opportunity to expand outward.
However, these actions of Qian Zuo not only harmed the interests of local powerful people, but also harmed the interests of the gradually localized Wuyongdu.
The powerful junior high school party was already very dissatisfied with him, so Hu Jinsi took this opportunity to teach Qian Zuo a lesson.
The fire in Qian Zuo's eyes flashed away, but he still knew that the anger of the Central Plains court was beyond his ability to bear, so Qian Zuo forced a smile.
"What the general said is absolutely true. I will immediately send people with tribute gifts to pay homage to Emperor Shao Ming."
However, Qian Zuo thought that the flash of anger in his eyes was well hidden, but he was the young king after all. The anger in his eyes was not only seen by Hu Jinsi, but also by the two civil and military factions below.