Seven days later, the Sui fleet left Hefei and returned to Jiangdu with a mighty return to Jiangdu, leaving Du Ruhui solely responsible for dealing with the aftermath.

The fleet sailed on the Yangtze River for two days, this day passed through Jiangning County, although this is not the first time Zhang Xuan passed through Jiangning County, but this time Zhang Xuan was particularly interested in Jiangning County, and took Jianghuai, the Sui army has no worries, the next target of the Sui army is naturally south of the Yangtze River, of course, with the strength of the Sui army now, there is no problem in sweeping Jiangnan, but the problem is to sit firmly in Jiangnan, that is another matter.

After the Sui Dynasty unified the north and south, Jiangnan has not really been conquered, but constantly rebelled, especially after seven years of the great cause, the rebellions in various parts of Jiangnan surged, Wang Shichong, Yu Juluo, and Chen Ling took turns to conquer and did not surrender them.

Zhang Xuan didn't want his troops to fall into Jiangnan for the time being, not to mention that the fierce battle in Jiangnan was raging, and Meng Haigong and the army of Jiangnan would be inseparable, so let them fight for a few more years, and when they were almost killed, it would not be too late for them to clean up the mess.

The fleet soon sailed through Jiangning County, about 100 miles, the sky gradually darkened, this is still 80 miles away from Jiangyang County, the fleet no longer moved forward, but anchored on the north bank.

The time has come to the end of October, the early winter season has come, and all battlefields are currently in a state of truce, unless there is special information, winter is not a suitable season for combat, especially the New Year is approaching, and the soldiers have no will to fight, and the New Year's truce has become the default unspoken rule of all armies.

The cabin was brightly lit, and Zhang Xuan sat at the table to peruse the grain harvest report that had just been delivered, which was the annual report after this year's autumn harvest, although it was only a preliminary report, but it was not much worse after the final revision.

This year's harvest in the Central Plains and Qingzhou is average, slightly lower than last year, but Hebei autumn grain has a bumper harvest, and the four counties of Xuzhou except for Donghai County, the other three counties basically have no harvest, which is completed in expected, Yu culture and the damage to Xuzhou is too great, it is difficult to recover without three or five years.

At the end of the report, Zhang Xuan saw a special report, that is, Shangdang County and Gaoping County, which were the two large counties that the Sui army had just obtained, and what surprised Zhang Xuan was that these two counties actually had a bumper grain harvest, and the grain output could rank in the top ten.

No wonder Pei Ju repeatedly told himself that Bingzhou is a famous granary in the world, and a merger can raise an army of 100,000 people.

At this time, a soldier outside the cabin reported: "Marshal Qiqi, Li Changshi has urgent matter to see!" ”

Zhang Xuan was stunned, Li Qingming couldn't wait to return to Jiangdu by himself, there was something urgent, he hurriedly ordered: "Let him come in to see me!" ”

After a while, Li Qingming walked into the cabin like a gust of wind and bowed, "Weichen see His Highness!" ”

"Sit down and talk!"

Zhang Xuan saw that Li Qingming looked a little anxious, so he asked him to sit down, and ordered his soldiers to serve tea, deliberately slowing down the pace, after a while, Zhang Xuan looked at him and said with a smile: "Are you calm?" ”

Li Qingming came to his senses and smiled a little embarrassedly, "Thank you for Your Highness's teachings, Weichen is a little out of shape." ”

"What is in a hurry will be out of proportion, only by maintaining concentration can we make a sober decision on major matters, take a sip of tea first!"

Li Qingming took a sip of tea, at this time, his state of mind completely calmed down, he groaned slightly, sorted out his thoughts, and said to Zhang Xuan: "Just yesterday, Jiangnan will send Shen Jian to find Weichen and ask us for help!" ”

"Help?"

Zhang Xuan smiled dumbly, "The wolf asks the hunter for help, will it end well?" ”

"They are in a very critical situation right now, and if it weren't for the danger, they wouldn't have come for help."

"Did they lose to Meng Haigong?"

Li Qingming nodded, "Shen Faxing's army has been defeated in successive battles, and now he has led more than 10,000 remnants of the army to be surrounded by Meng Haigong's more than 100,000 troops in Wu County for two months. ”

"Meng Haigong didn't send an army directly north to destroy the Jiangnan Society?"

"Meng Haigong sent the general Le Botong to lead 20,000 troops to the north, and Shen Faxing's son Shen Lun led the last 3,000 troops to confront him in Danyang County."

"Don't you think there's a problem here?"

Zhang Xuan sneered: "The 3,000 army can actually stop the 20,000 army from going north, is this the reincarnation of Zhuge Liang?" ”

"Weichen also feels strange, Jiangnan is not blocked by Xiongguan in Taihang Mountain, under normal circumstances, 3,000 troops will definitely not be able to stop the 20,000 army from going north, Weichen suspects that Jiangnan will secretly buy this Lebotong, I heard that he is from Danyang County, and Jiangnan will be very familiar."

Speaking of this, Li Qingming said again: "Now there are many scholars in Jiangdu who have fled from Jiangnan, there are thousands of them, and Weichen can also feel their panic. ”

Zhang Xuan nodded and asked, "Did Shen Jian come with you too?" ”

"Together, he's waiting outside now."

"Let him come in and see me."

Li Qingming got up and went out, not long after, Shen Jian was led in, since the Jiangnan Society suffered a big loss in the matter of exchanging grain for war horses, the Qingzhou Army and the Jiangnan Society severed relations, until the establishment of the Northern Sui, the relationship between the two sides still showed no signs of improvement, and this time if it was not for the Jiangnan would encounter a major crisis, Shen Jian would not come to ask the Sui Army.

Shen Jian walked into the cabin and knelt down to salute, "Xiaomin Shen Jian sees His Royal Highness King Qi!" ”

"Lord Shen is exempt, please take a seat!"

Zhang Xuan smiled and asked Shen Jian to sit down, Shen Jian was anxious, and hurriedly said: "Jiangnan is about to fall into the hands of bandits, and it is in danger, so I implore His Royal Highness the King of Qi to send troops to rescue." ”

Zhang Xuan said lightly: "I think Shen Dongzhu should understand that I don't tolerate the existence of the Bohai Society in Hebei, and the Jiangnan Society is actually the same, there are no two masters, if it weren't for the coming winter, I would have turned around and destroyed the Jiangnan Society, I don't understand why you came to beg me?" ”

Shen Jian sighed and said, "We know very well in our hearts that at least His Highness will not kill the Shi clan and will tolerate the existence of the big clan, but Meng Haigong is not." ”

"Isn't Meng Haigong intolerant of the Shi clan?"

Shen Jian's eyes showed resentment, "Meng Haigong doesn't do farming, where is there money and grain to feed hundreds of thousands of troops, he can only plunder the wealthy families, and almost all the wealthy families in Huiji County and Wu County are killed

Speaking of this, Shen Jian gritted his teeth with hatred and said: "Last month, they captured Wuxing County, and all the 128 clansmen who stayed in the Shen family's old house were slaughtered by him, and he ordered Lebotong to plunder Danyang County in the north, if it weren't for Lebotong's parents in our hands, we spent 5,000 taels of gold to bribe him, I'm afraid that Jian'an and Jiangning counties have become powder, and none of the major clans in Danyang County will survive." ”

Zhang Xuan pondered for a moment and asked, "Aren't you close to Lin Shihong?" Why not ask him for help. ”

"We have already sent someone, but he refused to send troops to help, citing the epidemic in the army."

Shen Jian was terrified, the reason why they were anxious was because Meng Haigong suspected that Lebotong was not effective in combat, and instead sent him from his younger brother Meng Qi Ghost to lead the army to attack north, Meng Qi Ghost is known as Meng Qi people in the south of the Yangtze River, he is extremely brutal, kills people like hemp, and especially likes to abuse women, many of the female dependents of the Shi clan are worse than death in his hands, if he leads the army to attack the north, the Shi clan can escape to Jiangdu is lucky, if he can't escape, then there is only a dead end. ”

Speaking of this, Shen Jian suddenly 'pounced!' He knelt down and pleaded, "If Your Highness can save us, we are willing to dissolve the Jiangnan Society and submit to Your Highness." ”

Zhang Xuan took a few steps with his hands in his hands, and said slowly: "First of all, you must understand one thing, Meng Haigong was beaten by me like a lost dog in the Central Plains, and he was cornered, but he was taken to Jiangnan by you, and Meng Haigong's disaster today is completely your own responsibility." ”

Shen Jian said with remorse: "It was we who led the wolf into the house and made the stupidest mistake. ”

"I can save you, as you said, my condition is to disband the Jiangnan Society and the army, and from then on submit to the Northern Sui, I will not pursue the past of the Jiangnan Shi clan, but the nobles of the Chen Dynasty must move to Zhongdu, they can be officials, or they can be rich in Zhongdu, can you accept it?"

Shen Jian nodded, "We should be able to accept it." ”

"But I can't trust you."

"Then how can Your Highness trust us?"

Zhang Xuan looked at him and said word by word: "I want you to write a surrender guarantee, and the four major families must sign and draw a pledge, and announce it to all parts of Jiangnan." ”

Shen Jian lowered his head and thought for a moment and said, "I can't be the master, I have to go back and discuss." ”

"Then I will wait for your news in Jiangdu, I will wait for three days, and after three days there will be no news, and the army will move north."

"Xiaomin understands, Xiaomin will rush back to Jiangning County now." (To be continued.) )