Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 340: Promoting Alliance in the Southwest
"Yang Zhiwen (Zhang Huaiquan), meet the commander..."

In the Longxi County Government Office, as Yang Zhiwen and Zhang Huaiquan walked into the main hall, they immediately saw Liu Jilong sitting in the main seat and bowed.

"Brother Dezhi, why should you be so polite? The same is true for Dalangjun."

After all, Yang Zhiwen was the matchmaker between Liu Jilong and Feng Hui, and Zhang Huaiquan was Zhang Yichao's eldest son.

It is reasonable for Liu Jilong not to put on airs with the two unless they touch his bottom line.

After motioning the two to sit down, Liu Jilong began to talk about business with them.

"The court needs food. How much do you plan to pay for it?"

"This..." Zhang Huaiquan looked at Yang Zhiwen. He was responsible for escorting Yang Zhiwen, and he would not talk about specific business.

Yang Zhiwen bowed and said, "The court's idea is to lower the price as much as possible. It's not a good idea for me to bring this up, so why not ask you, Marshal?"

"This time we came here with hundreds of thousands of rolls of silk and satin, worth about 600,000 strings of cash."

"I wanted to suggest that the court pay for the purchase, but I thought about how you, Marshal, have purchased goods from the Central Plains several times. It would be better to ship these silks here and sell them to the Western Regions via the Silk Road."

He was thoughtful and straightforward enough, after all, they had a close relationship.

"Each dan costs five hundred coins. For this batch of silk and satin, I can pay 400,000 dan of grain."

"But I will at most transport the grain to Wushan County, and the rest will be transported by the court itself."

As soon as Liu Jilong finished speaking, Yang Zhiwen agreed without hesitation: "The price is not too high, the court should agree to it."

"Not only that, I can also convince the court to continue purchasing from Marshal Jie later."

"Yes," Liu Jilong nodded, but reminded: "It will take me at least three or four years to digest this batch of silk and satin. The rest of the transactions must be done with coins."

"Of course." Yang Zhiwen nodded quickly and brought news to Liu Jilong: "Does the commander know about the rebellion of the Hehuai bandits?"

"Of course I know!" Liu Jilong responded, and then told the intelligence he had obtained:

"I heard that they split their troops into north and south, attacking Yanzhou and Chuzhou respectively."

"That's right." Yang Zhiwen did not hide it. After all, in his opinion, Liu Jilong was his way of retreat in the future.

The situation in the world is unpredictable now, but overall it is getting worse and worse, and it may fall apart at any time.

Although Emperor Li Yi was willing to give up power, with so many ministers in the court, how many of them had real talents and knowledge?
Among the various military governors in the country, many of them knew nothing about military affairs. For example, among the military governors who were in charge of the encirclement and suppression of Pang Xun and Wang Xianzhi this time, nearly half had never led troops to fight a battle.

It was normal for an official like Yang Gonghan who had never led troops to be defeated by Pang Xun's ambush, but the ministers in the court found it unbelievable. It seemed that when the sons of aristocratic families led troops to war, generals like Pang Xun and Wang Xianzhi should surrender.

"The court appointed Wang Shi as the governor of Huainan and Li Fu as the governor of the eastern part of Henan to deal with Wang Xianzhi and Pang Xun respectively."

Yang Zhiwen told Liu Jilong the information he knew, which was information that Liu Jilong had not received yet.

The first thing he thought about was that he felt sorry for Wang Xianzhi.

Wang Shi was a very capable person. If he had not joined Wang Shoucheng in his early years and been feared by the royal family, he might have been able to make great achievements.

If the imperial court sent Wang Shi to encircle and suppress Wang Xianzhi, Liu Jilian estimated that it would be difficult for Wang Xianzhi to become powerful.

After all, in history, Wang Xianzhi couldn't even defeat Zeng Yuanyu, let alone Wang Shi.

However, Liu Jilian was not optimistic about Li Fu's decision to suppress Pang Xun.

If Liu Jilian remembered Li Fu correctly, he seemed to be very arrogant. Dali and Datang had the opportunity to negotiate peace in advance, but this man imprisoned the prime minister sent by Dali to negotiate, which led to Dali and Datang fighting for more than 20 years.

In addition, he once fought against Wang Xianzhi, but was defeated by Wang Xianzhi, and even his son was beaten to death by Wang Xianzhi with a stick.

With such ability to deal with Pang Xun, Liu Jilong was very skeptical whether he could restrict Pang Xun.

Judging from the decisions made by the court alone, Liu Jilian felt that the decisions made by the Tang court had become increasingly ugly since the deaths of Bai Minzhong, Pei Xiu, and Bi Zhen.

Thinking of this, he asked tentatively: "Brother Dezhi, what do you think of the three prime ministers in the court?"

If Liu Jilian remembered correctly, Li Yi seemed to be a man who was willing to give up power, but the officials he chose were more corrupt than the last.

"This..." Yang Zhiwen pondered for a moment, and then continued:

"Prime Minister Jiang is peaceful and impartial, Prime Minister Lu is short-tempered, and Prime Minister Gao has his own ideas but is of little ability."

"Compared to the periods of Bai Xiang, Cui Xiang, and Pei Xiang, these three Xiangs..."

Yang Zhiwen shook his head, obviously not thinking highly of the three current prime ministers.

After hearing this, Liu Jilong also felt that if these three people were the only ones who wanted to resolve the current situation, then they were really overestimating them.

The Tang Dynasty had been plagued by problems for many years, and even if Zhangsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, and Du Ruhui were dug out of the ground, it would be difficult to solve these problems.

For the emperor and his ministers of the Tang Dynasty, the current situation is undoubtedly very difficult, but for Liu Jilian, the situation is very good.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong exchanged a few words of greeting with Yang Zhiwen and Zhang Huaiquan, and then set up a banquet to have dinner with the two of them.

However, during the break, Zhang Huaiquan took out a letter from his arms.

"General Liu Jie, this is a letter from my son Erlang to you. Please read it and burn it."

Zhang Huaiquan felt somewhat awkward when facing Liu Jilong.

When he first met Liu Jilian in the past, Liu Jilian was just a small brigade commander. Even though he was promoted to captain later, it was only because his father chose him in order to give the children of Hexi common people a chance to succeed.

However, as he was promoted, he gradually became uncontrollable, and finally his father had no choice but to send him to Lanzhou to start his own business.

However, within just a few years, Liu Jilian had managed to make Longyou an ironclad entity that was no less powerful than the three towns of Heshuo. Even Zhang Huaishen and Shang Moyan became his subordinates.

As he was thinking this, the letter in his hand was taken away by Liu Jilong.

Liu Jilian opened the letter in front of him, read the contents at a glance, and then threw the letter into the incense burner and burned it.

"Situ probably doesn't know about this letter, right?"

Liu Jilong asked Zhang Huaiquan, who shook his head: "I don't know."

"Yes, that's right." Liu Jilong nodded after hearing this, and then said to Zhang Huaiquan: "Go to Yin Hotel to rest first, and I will send someone to hand over my letter to you on the day you leave."

"Okay, I'll take my leave first..."

Zhang Huaiquan bowed and saluted, then turned and left.

After he left, Cao Mao and Chen Ying, who were standing more than ten steps away, came over. Cao Mao glanced at Zhang Huaiquan's back and then asked, "General, what did the letter say?"

"Zhang Huaiding... he's really restless wherever he goes!"

Liu Jilong's tone was slightly lamentable, but his brows were furrowed.

He did not explain to Cao Mao and the others what was written in the letter. After all, it was better for only him and Zhang Huaiding to know about this matter.

In the letter, Zhang Huaiding simply flattered him, and then said that he could not stand the court's targeting of the Guiyi Army in the Helong area.

If he had the chance, he would choose a prince to support him, so that he could obey the emperor and control the rebellion, and let the Helong Guiyi Army get the treatment they deserve.

Throughout the entire letter, Liu Jilong could not see any plan from Zhang Huaiding, it was all just a bunch of empty words.

In history, this guy fled back to Hexi, and Zhang Huaishen treated him well. As a result, he believed Suo Xun's words, and joined forces with Suo Xun and Zhang Huaishen's unfavored son to assassinate Zhang Huaishen, and also wiped out Zhang Huaishen's entire family.

In the end, after gaining power, he just indulged in extravagance and debauchery, and was killed by Suo Xun within a few years.

Liu Jilong thought that after experiencing so many things in this life, Zhang Huaiding would be smarter.

As a result, judging from his remarks in the letters, this guy is a pig in the wind. He is obviously blown by the wind, but he thinks he is so capable that he wants to learn from Cao Cao to "command the disobedients by following the emperor's orders."

The current situation is different from that at the end of the Han Dynasty. Even Liu Jilian himself has never thought of using the emperor's power to command the disobedient, but Zhang Huaiding dares to think so.

It seemed that as long as he controlled the emperor, Liu Jilian would bring Zhang Huaishen, Shang Moyan and other forces into Guanzhong to help him.

But he didn't think about it. If Liu Jilong really led his troops into Guanzhong, what could he use to fight against Liu Jilong with the 3,000 Shenwu troops in his hands?

Liu Jilian thought about it and felt that the current situation was really similar to that at the end of the Han Dynasty.

If he really followed Zhang Huaiding's script, regardless of whether Zhang Huaiding would succeed, just looking at this trend, he, Liu Jilong, might really become "Grand Tutor Dong".

He wants to hold the emperor hostage before the world is in chaos. The situation he will face at that time will probably be even more spectacular than that faced by Grand Tutor Dong.

With the number of vassal states in the world today, it would probably be the case that "Seventy-two heroes would attack Liu" by then.

Although Liu Jilian was very confident in the strength of Longyou, he was not confident enough to face the attacks from all the warlords in the world at the same time.

Liu Jilian pretended he had never seen Zhang Huaiding's stupid idea. It really polluted his eyes.

As for the reply letter to him in a few days, Liu Jilong still has to think carefully about how to deceive this guy who has high expectations but low skills. Although he is not good enough, he has 3,000 Shenwu soldiers in his hands, which can still play a certain role at a critical moment.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong looked at Cao Mao and asked, "Have I sent the letter I wrote to Shang Moyan?"

"It was sent out ten days ago. It should be arriving soon." Cao Mao responded slowly.

Liu Jilong nodded when he heard this, and then told the two of them, "I'm going to the central hall to rest. Call me when the dinner is over."

"Yes..." The two of them bowed in response, and Liu Jilong walked from the main hall to the middle hall.

At the same time, the letter Liu Jilong wrote to Shang Moyan was delivered to Jincheng while they were talking.

In the royal palace of Jincheng, Shang Moyan held the letter and carefully pondered its contents and meaning.

Not long after, as he put the letter down, several generals standing in the hall cast probing glances at him one after another.

Feeling their gazes, Shang Moyan spoke:

"The commander sent a letter asking us to agree to an alliance with the Nanman and attack Xichuan at the right time."

"it is good!!"

Upon hearing that Liu Jilong had finally allowed them to form an alliance with the Nanman and invade Xichuan, these Tibetan generals became excited.

Ever since they took over the six posts in Duokang, their development has been restricted.

The royal family in the west is still fighting for the throne in Lhasa. If they do not want to be regarded as enemies by the generals of various Ru tribes throughout Tubo, they cannot use military force against the royal family at this time.

Although the Tuyuhun area in the north could develop, Liu Jilian set up the Tuyuhun punitive army in Fuqi City on the west side of Qinghai. They did not dare to go north easily for fear of offending Liu Jilian.

Although they have governed Weixi, Duokang, Duomai and other places well in recent years under the leadership of Shang Moyan, how can farming be as satisfying as robbing?

If they had not been afraid of Liu Jilong, they would have even wanted to persuade Shang Moyan to establish himself.

Now, Liu Jilian finally agreed to their alliance with the Nanman and invasion of Xichuan. This is good news.

"Don't be too anxious to be happy. The commander asked us to send the people we looted during our invasion of Xichuan to Songzhou."

As soon as Shang Moyan said this, the laughter of the generals stopped abruptly.

They were unhappy, but they didn't dare to say it out loud.

Shang Moyan knew their attitude at a glance and said immediately: "The population will be exchanged for food, silk and tea for us."

"On April 20th, we can send troops to Diezhou to deliver the rewards issued by the commander-in-chief."

"Three thousand rolls of silk, two thousand dan of tea, and twenty thousand dan of grain..."

The generals, who were originally dissatisfied, changed their expressions again after hearing that the looted people could be exchanged for food, silk, and tea.

Especially when they heard that there would be rewards before the battle, they all became interested.

"Without Lu Jie, you will take 20,000 people to Diezhou to transport tea and grain."

"Wei Gongluolu, you take 500 cavalrymen and go south from Wucheng. Go to Yangzhumie City in person and have a good talk with the southern barbarians about the alliance."

"I obey your command!" Two generals in silk robes came out and bowed, then retreated back to the team.

The next day, Wei Gongluolu took the lead and led 500 cavalrymen south.

The journey is nearly two thousand miles and it will take at least one and a half months to reach Yangzhumie City.

Shang Moyan sent someone to write back to Liu Jilong, claiming that he was already taking care of these matters.

At the same time, Wang Xianzhi and Pang Xun in the Central Plains also encountered a crisis.

On February 18, Wang Congjian of the Zhongwu Army and Yang Fugong of the Huainan Army led more than 17,000 troops south and fought with Wang Xianzhi in Gaoyou. The two sides were in a stalemate.

Three days later, Pang Xun led his army to attack Yizhou and besieged Linyi. At the same time, he sent Xu Ji to lead 5,000 bandits to the south to besiege Muyang City.

When Li Fu of the Xuanwu Army learned that the bandits had surrounded Linyi and Muyang, he immediately concluded that Pang Xun was preparing to move south to join forces with Wang Xianzhi. He therefore decided to defend Muyang first, cut off Pang Xun's contact with Wang Xianzhi, and then move north to relieve Linyi.

Li Fu followed the steps planned by Pang Xun, Wang Hongli and others completely. Therefore, when he led his troops to Muyang and repelled thousands of bandits including Xu Ji, Pang Xun led his army to capture all counties in Yizhou except Linyi and obtained a lot of money and food.

Li Yan, commander of the Ziqing Army, led his troops to defend Linyi to the death, suffering heavy casualties. It was not until the tenth day of the siege that they received reinforcements from Li Fu.

Pang Xun decisively abandoned Linyi and fled north to Qingzhou. Although Li Fu lifted the siege of Linyi, it led to the looting of various counties in Yizhou, and Pang Xun also fled to Qingzhou.

In addition, there were less than 3,000 Ziqing troops left in Li Yan's hands, half of whom were injured.

Although there were still nearly 10,000 armored soldiers in Ziqing Town, they only dared to defend the city and did not dare to go out of the city to stop Pang Xun.

Li Fu could only lead his army to chase Pang Xun into Qingzhou, while Wang Shi also arrived in Yangzhou at the same time.

"Screw rustle..."

Outside Gaoyou County, as Wang Shi walked into the military camp wearing a purple robe, he saw many wounded soldiers in the camp, obviously they had just been through a great battle.

Many wounded soldiers were lying in the tents, and without a doctor, they could not get any treatment.

Wang Shi lowered the curtain and turned to look at Yang Fugong, Li Xiang and Wang Congjian who were standing behind him.

"How many soldiers do we have?"

He was not angry, but calmly asked the three men about the troops in the army.

Yang Fugong bowed and reported, "In the past ten days, our army has fought more than twenty battles with the enemy army, with many casualties. We still have more than 800 elite cavalry and more than 15,600 armored soldiers who can go into battle."

Hearing this, Wang Shi took a deep breath, then nodded and said, "How many casualties have been suffered by the enemy troops? How many can still fight?"

"The enemy's casualties are no less than 20,000 or 30,000, but there should be no less than 8,000 armored soldiers on the battlefield, and there are more than 60,000 light soldiers stationed."

After Yang Fugong finished speaking, Wang Shi immediately comforted him, "You guys should retreat and rest first."

"We'll take our leave..." Yang Fugong and the others knew that their performance was not very good, so they lowered their heads and left.

After they left, Wang She came out from the corner with a look of contempt on his face: "Aye, they had at least 20,000 armored soldiers and thousands of elite cavalry at the beginning."

"On the other hand, although the enemy army has 100,000 men, only 6,000 or 7,000 of them are wearing armor."

"We have fought more than 20 battles in a row, and lost 3,000 to 4,000 men. The morale of the army has been completely destroyed. On the contrary, the enemy's soldiers are increasing in number, and their morale is gradually rising."

"Father, give me five thousand soldiers tomorrow, and I will definitely cut off Wang Xianzhi's head!"

When Wang She arrived this afternoon, he went to the battlefield to take a look. The gap in strength between the two sides shocked him.

Wang Xianzhi had only a few thousand armored soldiers, and the rest were bandits or refugees who went into battle wearing only single clothes and carrying farm tools and broken weapons.

Although Wang She could not command an army of tens of thousands, he felt that he could defeat such a mob with just 5,000 soldiers.

Facing Wang She's arrogance, Wang Shi glanced at him and took him to the tent and said, "What do you think is the most important thing right now?"

"Of course, we should kill Wang Xianzhi and show our merit to the court!" Wang She said without hesitation, but Wang Shi shook his head and said:

"If we kill one Wang Xianzhi, there will be thousands and thousands more."

"We have come all the way from Chang'an. Don't you see clearly what is happening in Henan and Huainan?"

"Unless you can kill all the millions of refugees in Henan and Huainan, this will only be a temporary solution and not a permanent cure."

"Starting tomorrow, you will lead the three armies in training, and send people to recruit the bandits to surrender. As long as someone surrenders, their past crimes will be forgiven."

"In addition, I will apply to the court to exempt Huainan Dao from the rent and land taxes owed in the past."

"Only by winning back the hearts of the people can we stop the increasing number of bandits and achieve our goal in one fell swoop."

Facing Wang Shi's words, Wang She frowned and said, "Huainan Dao owes millions of taxes. Can the court agree to exempt them?"

"What if they don't agree?" Wang Shi asked Wang She, "If we don't agree to the exemption, will the people pay the money?"

"This..." Wang She didn't know how to answer, so Wang Shi continued:
"Only by ensuring that the people live and work in peace and contentment, and have enough food and clothing, can we prevent them from following the bandits."

"Which of these bandits in Henan and Huainan are not the common people who were forced to go to the mountains because of the exploitation of successive officials?"

"If they had a meal to eat, why would they do this job where their heads are hanging by their waists?"

As Wang Shi was talking, he walked into the tent and saw countless documents piled up on it. He couldn't help but sigh:

"It is not difficult to pacify the invaders, but it is difficult to solve the corrupt situation in the world..."

(End of this chapter)