In Jing'an, in Prince Ning's Mansion, the eunuchs and maids are busy preparing for tonight's Mid-Autumn Festival banquet.
King Ning integrated the counties in the south. Although he could not be said to have controlled the five counties in the south, he managed to put them together.
However, many benefits distribution has not yet been concluded, so the five southern counties are now a very loose alliance, and Prince Ning himself is only the prominent representative of this alliance.
Therefore, if he wants to seize more power and not be ignored by local powerful factions, Ning Wang Zhao Yongshen must seize every opportunity.
But at this time, Zhao Yongshen received some bad news in the study.
"You mean, the assassination failed?" Zhao Yongshen frowned.
The crown prince Zhao Yanjue lowered his head and replied helplessly: "Exactly!"
Zhao Yongshen's expression became more and more ugly, his tone became stern, and he asked: "The old guy was only accompanied by seven or eight students, plus a few grooms, but the people you sent actually failed?"
Zhao Yanjue kowtowed and said, "I have underestimated the enemy..."
"But the news from the front is that there are people protecting Fang Hongji!"
"Who's protecting him?"
"This... I don't know yet!" Zhao Yanjue replied bravely.
After thinking for a moment, Zhao Yongshen said with a gloomy face: "Could it be... that he is from Zhao Yanxun's child sect?"
Zhao Yanjue raised his head and asked with confusion: "My son keeps secrets. How did he know that we wanted to kill Fang Hongji?"
Zhao Yongshen looked calm and said with a murderous look on his face: "There have always been people who are editors and supervisors in the palace. Some of them may have been passed down for several generations!"
"If that's the case, my father... I think it's time for the palace to clear up these stumbling blocks!"
"How to clean it up?" Zhao Yongshen asked, while also testing his son.
Zhao Yanjue replied: "According to my son's wish, except for those slaves who are trustworthy, all the others will be driven out of the palace, and then they will be tortured carefully!"
Although this method is crude, it works once and for all.
"Leave the matter to you!"
"yes!"
After a few moments of silence in the study, Zhao Yongshen asked: "What do you think about the affairs in the southwest?"
The so-called things in the southwest mean that Yong's army has entered Shu County, and they have been paying attention to this matter from beginning to end.
"Prince Yong's Mansion has 20,000 elite soldiers and horsemen, plus 50,000 troops from the garrison. Yi Erchen estimates that... the Southwest will not be able to hold on for long!"
"How to deal with it?"
"My father has ordered Yang Hongwen to lead the troops from Lingbei to the north. All we need to do next is to add more troops!"
Nodding, Zhao Yongshen said: "It is so easy to increase troops. There are many important towns along the river, which are difficult to defend!"
Don't look at his boast before, saying that by concentrating the forces of the five counties together, they can guard the river and develop it, but in practice, various difficulties have arisen.
Although the South had plenty of money and food, it was still too late to convert the money and food into military strength.
Zhao Yongshen continued: "Let's discuss this matter with them at today's night banquet!"
Zhao Yanjue nodded and replied: "That's the only way!"
The atmosphere in Prince Ning's Mansion was heavy, and thousands of miles away in Rongcheng, a Yong army was ushered in.
Rongcheng is the capital of Shu County. Now the Yong Army has just entered the boundary of Shu County, and the main force is still on the east side of Shu County.
This thousand-man cavalry team marched quickly after breaking away from the main army. After breaking through the obstacles along the way, they appeared outside the county town.
For this Yong Army cavalry that went straight in, even though the Southwest and Southwestern Divisions had 50,000 soldiers, there was nothing they could do.
The two envoys, who were supposed to spend the festival in peace, appeared on the city wall at this moment, watching the Yong army in front gradually approaching.
"They are indeed strong soldiers..." Wang Baozhen said solemnly.
As a general with actual combat experience, Wang Baozhen is very discerning in judging the strength of the army.
Li Jinzhong beside him, although he agreed with Wang Baozhen's statement in his heart, at this moment he said coldly: "Don't be as ambitious as others!"
Before the official decisive battle between the two armies, the Southwest Guards Army was defeated one after another by just a thousand cavalrymen, which made Li Jinzhong feel very frustrated.
Wang Baozhen's words at this time were tantamount to rubbing salt into Li Jinzhong's heart.
"Is it possible that these people plan to take down this strong city with their thousand cavalry?"
The cavalry is not suitable for attacking the city, not to mention that with only a thousand people coming, it is really unrealistic to capture Chengdu.
In fact, since the Yong army captured the capital, the two southwest counties have been preparing for war. The city has sufficient supplies and 30,000 defenders.
In Li Jinzhong's view, if King Yong does not provide enough benefits, he will not easily respect the other party and fear the king, not to mention that this guy is a regicide and traitor.
More than half a month ago, officials from the imperial court announced the decree without any mention of benefits. This made Li Jinzhong very angry and directly killed the official who delivered the decree.
As a result, Southwest and the imperial court directly became hostile.
To be honest, Li Jinzhong was actually very panicked when he was about to fight Zhao Yanxun in the ring, but he had no other choice.
Fortunately, news came from King Ning of the south that the entire south would fully support the southwest, which made Li Jinzhong feel a little more at ease.
"General, someone is coming from the other side!"
After hearing the reminder from his subordinates, Li Jinzhong glanced not far away and saw someone walking out of the military formation.
"He is a civil servant, what kind of fame is this!" Wang Baozhen couldn't help but mutter.
"Are you here to persuade me to surrender?" Li Jinzhong sneered.
"Sir, do you want to shoot this guy to death?"
Li Jinzhong shook his head and said, "Don't worry, let's listen to what he has to say!"
Then the city tower became quiet, and everyone looked towards the people outside the city wall who were being escorted by several soldiers holding large shields.
When they were a hundred meters away, Yang Qingshan, who was sitting on horseback, took out the edict written by Zhao Yanxun himself.
"The edict of King Yong..."
Seeing that the other party directly issued an edict, everyone on the city wall didn't know what it meant. Why is your edict from King Yong important after all?
The cold looks from the people on the city wall did not affect Yang Qingshan who promulgated the edict. He could only think to himself: "There are rebellious people in Shu and Shannan counties who deceive people's hearts and rebel against the imperial court and exterminate themselves from the world. Therefore, I raise an army to fight against them."
…”
"However, I think that God has the virtue of good life, and I can't bear to lose my life, so I would like to give you another chance to survive!"
A chance of survival? There must be conditions, so Li Jinzhong and others had to listen patiently.
"From the time of receiving the imperial edict, the commanders of both Shannan and Shu counties should open the four gates of Rongcheng and send away the troops defending the city and return to the local area..."
"Civil and military officials of the fifth rank or above in the two counties should take off their official robes and go out of the city to plead guilty. This way they can avoid the death penalty!"
Several times, everyone on the tower was shocked when hearing these words.
Are you making conditions or asking for lives? The army has been disbanded for you, but you still want to dismiss our officers? How can this be done?
In Li Jinzhong's mind, after the two counties announced their surrender to the imperial court, the imperial court should also give them preferential treatment, and all the appointed officials in various government offices would not move. This would be a happy situation for everyone.
Putting away the edict, Yang Qingshan shouted loudly: "Everyone, this is the last chance His Highness gives you, a chance to survive!"
"Go back and tell that kid Zhao Yanxun that I have something to give him..."
As soon as the words were heard from the tower, several soldiers around Yang Qingshan immediately raised their large shields and blocked a dozen arrows thrown from the opposite side.
"retreat……"
The soldiers held up their large shields and quickly retreated to the rear. During the retreat, the military formation was not disrupted at all.
Watching the people below scurrying away in embarrassment, laughter came from the city wall, and even soldiers cheered for victory.
But next to Li Jinzhong, Wang Baozhen looked worried, and now there was really no chance of turning around.
