Xuzhou, Linying.

This city was named because it was close to Yingshui, and at this time, Zhu Quanzhong, the king of Liang, led his army to be stationed here. Approaching the end of the year, there was a gloomy atmosphere in Linying City, where there were originally nine towns of soldiers and horses, adding up to more than 100,000 people. But now, the New Year is approaching, and the coalition army camp in Linying is only left with the Liang army controlled by Zhu Quanzhong and the loyal military commander Zhou Qi of Xuzhou, as well as the Chen Zhou army of the loyal army commander Lu Yanhong who lost the feudal town of Yacheng.

To the southeast of them was the 80,000 army of Qin Zongquan, Shang Rang, Ge Congzhou, and Zhang Guimu, plus 20,000 elite soldiers of the Qin army led by Zhao Li, the general of the Qin army. It is precisely because of the appearance of this Zhao Li, who was born in a family of military generals in Chenzhou, that the originally strong Chenzhou was broken almost overnight. A group of old subordinates of the Zhao Li brothers in Chenzhou attacked the defenders of the city gate, opened the door to surrender to Qin, and led the Qin army into the city.

The city of Chenzhou was broken, which caused the soldiers and horses of the nine towns who gathered in Chenzhou at that time to be defeated, and they retreated all the way to Xuzhou. It was then that the situation began to change. Li Jing won a great victory outside the Guan, led hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses back to the Guannei, and then Li Keyong and other nine towns in the north retreated back to their own towns, and immediately the nine towns in the south, there were also six towns to withdraw their troops.

Immediately afterwards, there were rumors in the army that Yang Fuguang had gone to Yanjing to secretly meet with Li Jing and negotiate secretly with Qin Fan.

The towns are gone, and only three towns remain.

Lu Yanhong didn't leave because there was originally only one Chenzhou in his domain, and now that Chenzhou has been captured, he has no way to go unless he recaptures Chenzhou. Zhou Qi didn't leave, that's because Zhou Qi, a loyal and martial arts commander, has only actually controlled one Xuzhou all along. Chenzhou and Caizhou, the two states to which the original Zhongwu Town belonged, were lost. Xuzhou bore the brunt. He wanted to withdraw, but there was nowhere to withdraw.

Zhu Wen couldn't leave, and lost the three states of the Song Dynasty, and his Xuanwu Town was left with only one Bianzhou, although it still occupied a Zhengzhou in the eastern capital, but his Xuanwu Town was separated from the two towns of Jinshang Shaanxi and became an enclave. If Xu Zhou loses again, then his territory will really be intercepted on both sides, and he will be stopped by the Qin army and beheaded.

The small abacus played by the towns Zhu Wen knew very well, after destroying the Yellow Nest. Although Li Jing became the primary enemy of the new imperial court. But for these more and more fragmented feudal town marshals. They were far away from the Qin Domain, and the Qin Domain could not directly threaten them. If you follow other feudal towns to fight Li Jing, you may not be able to win, but you will lose soldiers, horses, money and food. Offend Li Jing. Anyway. Fight the Qin army. It is unlikely that it will attack the Qin Domain to plunder, defend and fight, and there is almost no benefit. Who wants to fight?

Anyway, even if the Qin army fights, there are still those feudal towns in front of them. Maybe after those feudal towns in front of them confronted the Qin army and weakened, they still had a chance to make a profit and swallow them. In that case, why work so hard. Of course, the most important thing is that even Yang Fuguang, a godfather with great prestige in the towns, went to negotiate with Li Jing, which means that this battle may not be fought.

The other feudal towns, especially those in Guanzhong and Shannan, were still thinking that there were tall people on top of the sky when the sky fell. But Zhu Wen had to stick to Xuzhou, because the sky was going to be real, and he was the tall man who wanted to hold up to the sky. The hundreds of thousands of Qin troops in western Henan are not the real Qin army. Most of them are officials, bandits, soldiers, and thieves, and many of them are Zhu Wen's former comrades in the grass army. Of course, he knew what these armies looked like, but in fact, when Cai Zongquan and his four reorganized Qin army corps attacked Chenzhou, the Xuanwu and Jin merchants who were close to Chenzhou, and even the towns of Shaanxi were affected throughout the territory.

The Caizhou Army, the Yingzhou Army, the Maozhou Army, and the remnants of the Qi Army, who were robbing money and food, shuttled back and forth between the states under his control, just like strolling in the backyard of his own home. When Li Keyong and the other nine towns were robbing the people of the villages on Li Jing's border in the north, Qin Zongquan and others sent their many terrifying auxiliary troops to fight grass valleys, grab money and grain, and even rob people.

Under this kind of locust tactics of the old battalion pressing the territory and attacking the city, and the old and weak plundering everywhere, Zhu Wen suffered heavy losses last year, and even the wealthy prefectures of Bian, Zheng, Deng, and Ru suffered famine, not only the prefecture and county warehouses were empty, but even none of the merchants came. Although Zhu Wen is also a large number of soldiers and horses, his territory is also large, surrounded by some former opponents who have fought in the past, and he has to deal with those thieves on the one hand, and on the other hand, he has to stay in the state and county to guard against the hidden arrows that may be shot from behind at any time.

Guanlong and other feudal towns are waiting for peace with Li Jing, and even Li Keyong, who has a hatred for taking his wife and killing his father with Li Jing, has not moved recently, which makes Zhu Wen feel uneasy. They were all willing to negotiate peace with Li Jing, but Zhu Wen did not want the peace negotiations to succeed. Because Zhu Wen, who was also born in the Qin army, knew the style of the Qin clan very well, and the so-called peace negotiation was just a strategy to delay the army and paralyze the enemy. Zhu Wen's territory has been connected to Li Jing's territory, and it can be said that Li Jing's spear is pointed directly at his throat, and the long sword is above his head, which may fall at any time. Qin Fan is a tiger and a wolf, how can he really negotiate peace? Once the Chang'an Imperial Court really thought that the world would be peaceful if peace was negotiated, then the matter would be troublesome. When Li Jing really kills him, who can stop the Qin army with him?

Hedong Town, Taiyuan Province.

Jinyang Palace, at this time, has become the palace hall and garden used by King Li Ke of Jin.

Inside a stone pavilion, on a stone table in the pavilion, there are several pastries and a jar of spirits. On both sides of the stone table sat two warriors in the brocade robes, and behind the two stood two fierce warriors, who stood by their swords. To the east of the stone pavilion, it is a piece of plum blossoming that blooms in the wind and snow.

Taiyuan in Layue is very cold.

But the guards in the stone pavilion and the two men didn't seem to feel the cold at all, drinking strong wine and admiring plum blossoms, indescribably free and easy.

"King Jin must have guessed my intention, right?" A slightly older middle-aged man sitting in the pavilion picked up the jade cup in front of him, drank a large sip of Wuliang jade liquid, and put the cup back on the table. When he spoke, a pair of sharp eyes did not leave Li Keyong who was sitting opposite him for a moment.

"Peace!" Li Keyong looked back with one eye at the envoy of the Hezhong Festival and the king of Han, Wang Chongrong, who was also an important festival commander in Hedong, and was silent for a while. Wang Chongrong rushed to Taiyuan when the New Year was approaching. Naturally, it's not just about having a few glasses of wine and enjoying the plum blossoms. In fact, it is naturally a great event for Wang Chongrong to come at this time. And this important matter is naturally inseparable from Li Jing, the king of Qin.

Last year, Hedong Town, Hezhong Town, Heyang Town, as well as Dingnan, Baoda, Zhenwu and other nine towns attacked the Qin Domain, which can be said to have completely provoked Li Jing. Took such a big risk, but ended up not getting much real loot. Originally, it was thought that the war of the Qin clan in the northeast had been going on for several years, and it was still increasing troops to the northeast. Then the war in the northeast should be difficult for a while. It's possible that the confrontation will last longer. But who would have expected that in the blink of an eye, the hundreds of thousands of tribal armies composed of hundreds of tribes would be defeated suddenly, and the defeat would be so complete. Even the Nine Towns to the south did not make the slightest progress. As a result, the Eighteen Towns crusaded against Li Jing. The most relentless and anticlimactic.

Now Li Jing is back. It is rumored everywhere that Li Jing not only brought back 500,000 elite Qin troops. And there are millions of soldiers. It is even rumored that Li Jing is constantly gathering his troops and horses in the north, preparing to take fierce revenge on the towns that have invaded the Qin Domain, especially the nine towns in the north.

No one would deny the strength of the Qin army. And if the Qin army really sent troops to retaliate, then among the nine towns in the north, Hedong Town would bear the brunt of it, and then his Hezhong Town. Wang Chongrong was absolutely unwilling to bear Li Jing's anger, he had already heard that Yang Fuguang had gone to Yanjing in person to talk secretly, but he didn't know what the truth of this matter was. He was eager to know the true situation of Lu Dao, so he hurried to ask Li Keyong. In his mind, Li Keyong was still in front of him, and the Qin army really wanted to retaliate, and Hedong Town was the first to bear the brunt, so they should be natural allies.

"King Yang is indeed negotiating peace with Li Jing."

"Well, that has the result?" Wang Chongrong hurriedly asked, "Is Li Jing willing to negotiate peace?" ”

"Peace has been reached!"

"Really?" Wang Chongrong was pleasantly surprised, "What is the specific result?" ”

Li Ke recounted the contents of the peace discussion in a deep voice.

"That's the result, it's a good thing. Unexpectedly, Li Jing was willing to compromise and compromise, which is great. Wang Chongrong breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this, not only did Li Jing not come to retaliate against them, but also only asked for the release of the looted people for their plunder, and did not even ask for real compensation for the money and materials looted. This is an unexpectedly good result!

"Does King Han think this is a good thing?"

"Isn't it?"

Li Keyong sighed and shook his head, "This is a trap, can't King Han see it?" Li Keyong was a little disappointed with Wang Chongrong's reaction, and the result of this negotiation may be very satisfactory to Yang Fuguang, but it will not be a good outcome for Hedong Town and Hezhong Town.

"Wei Bo and Chengde Erzhen are now a stumbling block and a thorn in the eye in front of Li Jing. If Li Jing does not get rid of the second town for a day, he will not attack the west of Taihang Mountain on a large scale for a day. And once Li Jing gets rid of Wei Bochengde, the next target will definitely be Hedong Town and Hezhong Town. Lips and teeth are cold, King Han! Today, Li Jing forced the Yang brothers to sit back and watch the Qin clan annex the second town of Hebei, so if Li Jing repeats his old trick again and forces the Yang brothers to sit back and watch the Qin army annex our second town in Hedong, what should we do? ”

Wang Chongrong's face began to become heavy, indeed. Li Jing annexed the second town of Hebei, if everyone sat idly by, then when the Qin clan attacked the second town of Hedong, who would save them?

"However, now that the Qin army is riding the sharp momentum of the great victory in the Northeast, and the Yang brothers are bent on peace, even if we have other ideas, we are powerless. If Li Jing, who is really introduced, abandons Hebei and attacks Hedong first, what will we do at that time? ”

Between the dead poor road and the dead friends, Wang Chongrong quickly made a choice. The attitude of the Yang brothers is already obvious, and they are bent on making peace. At present, if they are against the Yang brothers, with the strength of their two towns, it will be difficult for them to effectively protect the two towns if they interfere in the situation in Hebei, and they may even be burned. Although Qin Jun is not far from Hezhong Town, it is not close, at least there is a Hedong Town in front of him, and if he does not go to that step, he really doesn't want to stab Li Jing who has been appeased now.

Although Li Keyong had already guessed that this might be the result, after seeing Wang Chongrong's reaction, he still couldn't help but feel a little disappointed in his heart, Wang Chongrong had such an attitude, so it was even more difficult to convince the party and Tuyuhun people. It seems that he only has the last choice left.

Do you really want to go that far?

Li Ke knew very well in his heart that if he really did that, maybe the result would be worse. But he really has no extra choice, in the current situation, he can only follow closely behind the Yang brothers, otherwise, not to mention Li Jing, a powerful enemy, even other feudal towns, will also rush up and divide him.

"Zhu Asan, don't blame me, I was also forced to be helpless, if I could, I wouldn't want to take your life!" Li Ke sighed secretly in his heart, but remembering that Yang Fuguang secretly entered Taiyuan from Hebei three days ago and explained to him earnestly, he was helpless. Yang Fuguang asked Li Keyong to accept the order of the Son of Heaven while the peace was still being kept secret, and led his troops to Henan to exterminate the remnants of Huangchao. Of course, this is only the surface, in fact, Yang Fuguang asked him to take this opportunity to lead his troops to Xuzhou, Henan, to join Zhu Quanzhong, and reinforce Zhu Quanzhong and others to fight against the Qin army's attack on western Henan, in fact, it was for him to take the opportunity to get close to Zhu Quanzhong, and then directly find an opportunity to kill Zhu Quanzhong.

Of course, Yang Fuguang didn't let him run in vain. He told Li Keyong very directly, Li Jing originally wanted his head, but he tried his best to save it, and only after the last effort did he persuade Li Jing to exchange Zhu Wen's head for Li Ke's use. Therefore, if Li Keyong refuses to kill Zhu Quanzhong, then he has to borrow his head. Moreover, Yang Fuguang also promised to benefit, as long as he destroyed Zhu Quanzhong, and helped him defeat the Liang army and control Zhu Quanzhong's original prefectures and counties, then Li Keyong could get 30% of all Zhu Quanzhong's treasury money, grain and ordnance.

This is a big temptation, although he won Hedong Town, but after all, the Shatuo army has been hit too hard over the years, and it is still far from recovering. If you can get a batch of supplies from Liang Fan, it will be extremely helpful. Although Zhu Quanzhong has always been looked down upon by him, this guy has relied on his back to seek glory in recent years, occupying a large area of territory in the Central Plains, and he can be regarded as a relatively fat one among the towns.

Originally, he was still a little hesitant, because in his opinion, this time was not a good time for infighting, and it was easy for Li Jing to take advantage of it. But now that there is no choice, there is nothing to hesitate about. As for how to take Zhu Asan's head, in Li Keyong's opinion, it doesn't seem to be a problem.

A mere pot thief, feeding the pigs, is he the opponent of Li Ya'er, the flying tiger? Just by him, is he worthy? (To be continued......)