Kaifeng, located in the Bianhe River, is an important gateway to the eastern capital of Luoyang, since the Sui Dynasty opened the main artery canal that communicates the north and south, the Bianhe River that communicates the Yellow River and the Huai River, but also allows Kaifeng to occupy the time of geography and people, and has entered a period of rapid development, becoming a metropolis with extremely convenient water and land transportation.

At this time, it was Zhu Wen who was the Xuanwu Army Festival envoy in Kaifeng. Xuanwu under the jurisdiction of Bianzhou, Songzhou, Bozhou, Yingzhou, all are rich and plastered, at this time under the rule of Zhu Wen, there are more than 100,000 households, more than 500,000 people.

Li Ze has always been very jealous of Zhu Wen, because the Xuanwu army occupies a great advantage in terms of geographical conditions, and guarding Kaifeng is equivalent to choking the throat of the Central Plains, and the wealth of Xuanwu enables Zhu Wen to have a well-equipped army with excellent combat power. At this time, Zhu Wen can be described as a corporal of Lixian, benevolent and benevolent, so that his rulers love him very much, and his influence is not only limited to Xuanwu.

Compared with Zhang Zhongwu, who was the first to raise the flag to rebel, and Tian Chenghe, who now jumped out to annex Zhaoyi, the strength of the silent Zhu Wen is only afraid that it will be far above the two.

In Li Ze's view, if this person does not move, he is afraid, and if he moves, he will alarm the world.

It is in April, on both sides of the Bianhe River, the grass grows and flies, and countless weeping willows dance with the wind under the embankment, creating layers of ripples above the water surface, and the wind blows petals and peach blossoms from afar, falling on the water surface and going down the water.

On the Bianhe River, there are small boats carrying guests to wander on the shore, or sit on the bow of the boat to paint, or hold books and chant endlessly, of course, more are holding fishing rods and being the lone boat fishermen. In the center of the river, there are large painting boats rowing by, and the sound of silk and bamboo singing and dancing is endless. Occasionally, you can see patrolling warships passing by, and on the bow of the ship, the soldiers standing solemnly have become another scenery.

This is just the most ordinary day on the Bianhe River, in spring. But for others, today is an extraordinary day.

Hou Xiyi, the envoy of Pinglu Jiedu, lifted the curtain, greedily looked at the endless customs on the Bianhe River, kept shaking the wine glass in his hand, and sighed: "Zhu Shuai, compared to your Bianzhou, where I am, it is completely like a poor country." ”

The fat Xuanwu Jie Du made Zhu Wen laugh, and the fat on his face trembled: "You envy me here, I still like the vast and endless sea where you are, the small river ditch, you can only raise some shrimp and turtles, where can you compare to the sea, but you can hide dragons inside." ”

Zhu Shuai laughed, now I am living like a year! Wu Wei is aggressive, Li Hao is a child, and he has repeatedly raised troops to violate the border! Hou Xiyi said indignantly, sent out 5,000 cavalry, originally wanted to fight the autumn wind and take advantage of it, but it was just a meat bun and a dog, and he never returned, this battle, but Hou Xiyi was really frightened. was afraid that Li Ze would raise a large army to retaliate, but Li Ze didn't take him seriously at all, and actually released all the captured Pinglu soldiers back, and even threatened himself. The embarrassed Hou Xiyi's prestige in Pinglu has now fallen sharply with successive defeats.

"Let's see him rise up, and see him collapse." Cao Xuan said with a smile. "Don't look at his prestige now, but I'm afraid it won't last long. Zhu Shuai, where is Zhang Zhongwu, what news is there? ”

Zhu Wen took a sip of wine and said with a smile: "Although Zhang Zhongwu has been defeated again and again, his strength still exists, and now he is retreating to Yingzhou, as long as Pingzhou can hold it for a year or two, then Zhang Zhongwu may be able to turn over, and when the time comes, Li Ze will have to take a good look." ”

"In a place like Liaozhou, Yingzhou, it is extremely bitter and cold, and it is full of wild people, Zhang Zhongwu wants to turn over, but he is afraid that it will be difficult." Yanhai Jiedu made Dai Chao disapproving.

Zhu Wen shook his head and said, "Brother Dai, you haven't been to that place, so you don't know the beauty of that place. Thousands of miles of fertile fields, sow the seeds, don't care about him, after autumn, there will be a full harvest. Those miscellaneous beards, savages, if they can be subdued, they are natural combat power, although these people are extremely barbaric, but if they can be used for their own purposes, there are many benefits, and Zhang Zhongwu has long left a back hand in Goguryeo, and now he is afraid that Goguryeo is about to become his back garden. Although Zhang Zhongwu lost most of Lu Long's territory, he was still far from being exhausted! ”

"That's good, that's good!" Hou Xiyi said happily: "In this way, Zhang Zhongwu can contain that Li Ze, so that Li Ze, a bastard, can't get in the way of our affairs." ”

"Brother Hou's words are to the point." Zhu Wen laughed out loud: "To tell the truth, Wuwei has fought in the past two years, which is really impressive, and the combat effectiveness of the Wuwei army cannot be underestimated. With 10,000 foot soldiers, he carried Zhang Zhongwu's 20,000 cavalry in turn without crushing, which is shocking to think about. Fortunately, in the repeated battles with Zhang Zhongwu, although Li Ze won, it could only be regarded as a miserable victory, and his own losses were not small, so he could only rest and recuperate, which not only gave Zhang Zhongwu a chance to breathe, but also made him powerless about the situation in the Central Plains. But this person will inevitably become our strongest opponent in the future. ”

Hou Xiyi said: "Zhu Shuai, since this is the case, why don't we take advantage of his illness and ask for his life, as long as Zhu Shuai shouts, the four of us will form a coalition army, attack from Pinglu, sweep all the way over, and destroy this dynasty food, isn't it beautiful?" ”

As soon as the words came out, Zhu Wen, Dai Chao, and Cao Xuan all laughed, and it seemed that Li Ze had really caused a great shadow in Hou Xiyi's heart, so that he couldn't speak without thinking.

"I don't want to let go of the rich Central Plains, what am I going to do with him to fight for the bitter cold land in the north?" Zhu Wen smiled: "What's more, he is like a wounded beast now, although he is licking his wounds, but at this time, he is also the most dangerous." He transferred the 20,000 elite soldiers of Shi Zhuang, the general under his command, to Yizhou, and transferred thousands of armor soldiers from Chen Chang'an in Cangzhou to Dizhou to join forces with Li Hao, so that the Dizhou army alone was close to 10,000 soldiers, which is not only to defend against Wei Bo, but also to defend us! Even though this person knew that we would not attack his idea now, he still made such an arrangement, which shows that he was extremely cautious and refused to reveal even the slightest flaw. ”

"As long as the Central Plains is determined, what can he do? Don't bend your knees to the Central Plains when the time comes? Cao Xuan smiled: "So now we don't have to worry about him at all, let him have nothing to do with Zhang Zhongwu." But Zhu Shuai, I think we still have to give Zhang Zhongwu some support. ”

"That's nature." Zhu Wen bowed his head and said: "Brother Hou, there will be a large number of ordnance and other items from your Pinglu to be loaded and shipped, now we and Zhang Zhongwu can form a temporary alliance, he has to have the strength to drag Li Ze for us!" ”

When Zhu Wen said this, he was worried that he would spend money on these supplies to Zhang Zhongwu, and don't let this marshal be hacked when the time comes.

"Zhu Shuai rest assured." Hou Xiyi nodded repeatedly.

Although the emperor's edict has not yet been issued, everything is still in the making, but Chang'an is like a sieve in terms of secrecy, and the news has long spread all over the world.

Yanhai, Tianping, has long been united with Zhu Wen, Yanhai Daichao and Zhu Wen are sons and daughters, Tianping's power is weak, and he can only rely on Xuanwu, while Pinglu Hou Xiyi is connected to Li Ze and hit hard, so he took the initiative to take refuge in Zhu Wen in order to protect himself.

"This time the emperor crusaded against Tian Chenghei, naturally because of Li Ze's great victory, which gave him confidence. Zhu Shuai, what do you think are the chances of the imperial court winning this battle? Dai Chao asked.

"Luoyang and Guanzhong still have 200,000 Shence troops, aside from some of them who are waiting for death, as well as some who eat empty salaries, there will not be more than 100,000 people who can really fight. Among them, there are 50,000 troops and sailors stationed in Luoyang by Li Xin, the king of Fu. Chen Bangzhao knew very well that if he wanted to win this war, he had to mobilize most of King Fu's troops. Because of the army at the four major passes of Chang'an, he didn't dare to transfer too much. And although Qin Zhao's Wu Weiwei also maintained considerable combat strength, it was unlikely that they would leave Chang'an. ”

"In this way, Tian Chenghei is not without a fight." Dai Chao said thoughtfully.

"It's hard." Zhu Wen said: "The key is the addition of the Hedong army. Although the Hedong army fell apart after Gao Yu's death, its most elite part fell into the hands of Han Qi, who had stubbornly withstood Li Ze's pressure and reintegrated Hedong in the past two years, and its strength had grown considerably. Tian Chengsi may not be afraid of the Shence Army, but if he can't withstand the Hedong Army, defeat is inevitable. ”

"If the imperial court is allowed to win, we are afraid that we will have a hard time in the future." Hou Xiyi sighed.

"That's why we're here!" Dai Chao smiled: "Of course you can't let the imperial court win." ”

"Zhu Shuai, what are we going to do?" Cao Xuan asked directly.

"I have already made a commotion to the emperor, Your Majesty is crusading against Wei Bo, and I am willing to move forward!" Zhu Wen patted his fat belly and said with a smile.

"Huh?" Cao Xuan didn't react for a while.

"If you want to do something, you have to join in first." Zhu Wen said lightly: "Since we have judged that Wei Bo has a better chance of losing, we naturally have to join the side that is likely to win, and then find the right opportunity to stir up the situation. My main force will enter the battle of Weibo, Brother Dai, Brother Cao, Brother Hou, your troops must be ready, and once the opportunity comes, they will immediately seize the fighter. After I go to Weibo, the troops you have gathered will be under the unified command of Dai Chao. ”