Northern Dynasties

Chapter 603
In the living room of the inner hall of the state capital, Xiao Xun, Marquis of Yifeng, was still asleep when he was suddenly awakened by a violent noise from outside.

"What happened?"

Xiao Xun sat up in shock from the couch, and the servants standing outside replied tremblingly: "It seems that some thieves have rushed into the state capital..."

When Xiao Xun heard this, he was startled and angry. He put on his clothes and shouted angrily: "Where is the thief, how dare you invade the state capital!"

"No, I don't know..."

"How many thieves are there?"

Xiao Xun had already grabbed the robe on the hanger and put it on, and asked his maid to fetch his sword.

"Y-I don't know."

The maidservants were already shocked when they heard the sound of fighting outside, so naturally they didn't dare to go out to inquire more.At this moment, a strong eunuch from the Hou Mansion rushed into the room with a knife, and shouted loudly: "Where is the lord? There are powerful thieves entering the state capital outside, and the front hall can't resist it. Please let the lord get out of here quickly." Evacuate later!"

Xiao Xun was even more panicked when he heard this. At least he was dressed properly, but he asked in disbelief: "Thousands of elite guards in the mansion can't stop the thieves? These thieves, how did they enter the city? "

Sudden such a drastic change, Xiao Xun was full of surprises, but his servants could not answer his many questions at the moment. Hearing the sound of fighting getting closer, he could only follow the lord towards the back of the mansion, hoping to escape. After leaving the mansion, join the city defense forces and fight back.

At this time, in the front hall of the state capital, Li Tai had already led his troops to defeat a battle formation of hundreds of people entangled in the front hall, and all the defeated soldiers scattered and fled.And they didn't have time to continue chasing and suppressing the defeated crowd. Instead, they continued to kill Zhitang, the state capital, under the leadership of their guide. If they controlled Zhitang, they would control the military and political center of the city. At least in this night city, it would be difficult to carry out any large-scale operations. personnel scheduling.

There were more than 300 strong soldiers holding crossbows and short blades gathered in Zhitang. When Li Tai and the others rushed into this place, they were immediately covered by the opponent's bows and arrows, and it was difficult to bully them for a while.

The original situation was still in a stalemate, but suddenly there was a rush of drumming from the inner palace. Li Tai and others who invaded here did not know what the meaning of the drumming signified. A little panicked but still determined to resist, Li Tai planned to temporarily retreat to the front hall and wait for backup.

However, at this moment, the armored soldiers who had been stationed in front of the straight hall, after hearing the urging of the drum order, gave up forming an formation here and retreated straight to the rear.

"The enemy will abandon the state capital and plan to flee!"

Seeing this scene, Li Tai suddenly understood, Dang even gave up the idea of ​​temporarily retreating, clenched the horse in his hand again, and continued to kill.

Without a stable and solid formation, the soldiers here retreated separately. Even though there were still some people left behind, they would either be directly beheaded on the spot when facing the bravely charged enemy, or they would also retreat in retreat.

Naturally, Li Tai could not allow Xiao Xun to successfully escape from the mansion and then gather troops to counterattack. After leaving more than [-] people to collect the documents and seals of the Zhitang, he led the troops to continue to charge towards the inner mansion.

However, they were not familiar with the layout of the inner mansion after all, and they quickly got lost in it. There were many slaves running around in the courtyard, but they couldn't find the trace of Xiao Xun, the governor of Liangzhou. With the guidance of the servants in the famous mansion, he finally found the correct path and rushed to the back gate of the state mansion. He could then interrogate the wandering people here, but he knew that Xiao Xun and his family had fled here half a quarter of an hour ago and headed for the city.

After Li Tai heard the words, he felt very sorry. He didn't have many entourages at this time, and his men and horses were exhausted, so he was not suitable for searching all over the city, so he could only return to the state capital for the time being.

When they returned to the straight hall, Li Qianzhe had also arrived with his disciples, and led a middle-aged man in a brocade robe who was a bit messy and embarrassed into the hall, pointing to him and said to Li Tai: "I will report to the envoy , this one is the Marquis Yifeng of the Liang State, the Lord Xiao of the House here."

Li Tai was a little bit disappointed because of Xiao Xun's escape before, but now seeing Li Qianzhe lead him back, he was overjoyed and pleasantly surprised. He nodded heavily at Li Qianzhe first, and then looked at the panicked expression Xiao Xun clasped his fists slightly and said with a smile: "I have heard Xiao Hou's reputation for a long time, so I came here uninvited this time, please forgive me for being rude.

A certain Li Boshan, who was the governor of Jingzhou in my country, was ordered by Prime Minister Yuwen, the Duke of Anding of our country, to recover the previously stolen land of Shannan and Hanzhong. He did not kill people for entering the country, please rest assured Xiaohou.Entering the state capital and disturbing Xiaohou's dreams are also forced by the situation. Now that the matter is a foregone conclusion, I also ask Xiaohou to help and comfort the people in the city so that there will be no more killings in this city, which is also to preserve Xiaohou's name of benevolent rule . "

He thought that what he said was both soft and hard, dignified and decent, and Xiao Xun should have no reason to reject him, but after he finished speaking, he saw that the other party's eyes were just wandering, not daring to look at him, and his body was still slightly leaning back, as if he was looking at him The look of being disgusted and unwilling to approach him suddenly became upset, and Dang even let out a cold snort.

"General, forgive me, general..."

This cold snort sounded like thunder in Xiao Xun's ears, and he was about to collapse on the ground as soon as his knees softened.

Not to mention the shock of being attacked by the prison that night, just after entering the hall, I saw Li Tai's tall body soaked in blood, some thick blood even stuck to his armor, and there was a strong and pungent smell all over his body. The bloody smell in his heart was already extremely frightening, and he didn't hear what Li Tai said at all.

Li Tai can't afford to humiliate the other party to show off his prestige. Seeing Xiao Xun panic and depressed like this, he lowered his head and made a little self-examination to understand what kind of image he is now, so he temporarily ignored the frightened man Xiao Xun quickly ordered Jincheng to be sealed off, and no one was allowed to enter or leave that night. He also shouted to Luocheng that the defenders of the battalions should stand by in their respective battalions, and that they were not allowed to act without authorization, etc.

After explaining this, Li Tai temporarily took a bath in the inner mansion to tidy up his appearance. He is not a psychopath, and the previous battle was fierce and he had no time to take care of it, but now that the battle is over, he naturally couldn't bear his wet, slippery and bloody body.

When he returned to Zhitang, the Li brothers had basically grasped the military and political situation in the city.

After Li Tai sat down and listened to Li Qianzhe's explanation, he realized that there were nearly [-] defenders inside and outside Nanzheng City alone, and there were more than [-] shi in grain storage.Naturally, such a large city would not have the fatal negligence of storing rice but not salt in Jiankangtai City, and all kinds of materials for defending the city were also fully prepared.

Hearing this, Li Tai couldn't help secretly rejoicing that the sneak attack was successful. If the army marched out step by step and encircled Hanzhong, even if Nanzheng City could be captured, it would take a long time.And Liu Zhongli in Handong was eyeing Xiangyang covetously, and Murong Shaozong in Henan didn't know where he was going. He absolutely couldn't send most of his troops outside for a long time.

Li Tai was also quite surprised that Nanzheng City had gathered so much war energy. After further questioning, he found out that this was the initiative of Xiao Xun's aide, Liu Fan.Under Liu Fan's suggestion, Xiao Xun gathered human and material resources in the territory to Nanzheng from a very early age.

Li Tai had naturally heard of Liu Fan, a famous person in Hanzhong, and he couldn't help but be amused to hear that Li Qianzhe had already held him here.

However, in his opinion, Liu Fan's suggestion to Xiao Xun is not very wise. There are many rebellious Fangyu chieftains in Shannan, and Xiao Xun's power and prestige may not be able to control them calmly. It seems to have mastered a large number of personnel resources, but in fact it is putting itself on an unstable powder keg.

For example, if the Ankang Li family hadn't been forced by Xiao Xun's overly tough attitude, they might not have turned to themselves directly.

However, before they arrived, Nanzheng had gathered so many powerful chieftains and had not yet caused any major disturbances, and the state affairs were still handled in an orderly manner, which also showed that this Liu Fan did have the talent to handle common affairs.

Naturally, Li Tai doesn't need anyone to give him some macro strategic guidelines. What he needs is someone who can fully understand his intentions and carry out his orders. From this perspective, this Liu Fan is worthy of being recruited into the government. .

Anyway, before he left Huazhou, Yu Wentai didn't specifically explain who he must pay attention to after conquering Hanzhong, even if he did, he could just pretend he didn't hear it.

When he learned that Liu Fan and Xiao Xun were arranged in the side room of Zhitang, Li Tai got up and went to meet each other again.

When he walked into the room, Xiao Xun, who was still discussing with Liu Fan in a low voice, suddenly stopped, staring straight at Li Tai, his eyes became a little unbelievable, Liu Fan who was on the side reminded him in a low voice. After that, he woke up abruptly, and then quickly lowered his head again.Probably because the first impression was too terrifying, which made him secretly afraid when he saw Li Tai.

Seeing that Xiao Xun still didn't dare to look at him, Li Tai couldn't help but feel a little helpless. This is the first time I've met a guy who wasn't impressed by my appearance!

He turned his eyes to Liu Fan again, and said with a smile: "I heard that Liu Ji's office is in charge of most of the affairs of the state government, and those who can do more work. Although I am in this city today, I need to rely on Liu Ji's office for everything. Now the situation in the mansion is settled, but the people in the outer city are still uneasy. In order to avoid the panic and nuisance of the masses, I intend to dismiss the army and order them to return to their hometowns. , Liu Jishi, what do you think?"

Naturally, Liu Fan also learned of Li Tai's identity from the Li brothers, so she didn't dare to trust Li Tai in front of him. After listening to Li Tai's words, she bowed deeply in front of the side seat and said, "A certain class of sinners can't keep their integrity. It's hard to be ashamed of yourself. Since the Metropolitan Governor has entered this realm, it is a blessing for the officials and people here to uphold the principles of benevolence, righteousness and good life. But I would like to ask Chief Governor Li, what do you want to do with my lord, Palace Master Xiao?"

"When we met before, I told Xiao Hou that this entry was only for the recovery of the lost land, not for the murder of evil. What's more, Xiao Hou has ruled this town for a long time, and he has spread the virtues. He has always been pleasing to the scholars and people. As long as Xiao Hou is not lonely If you are willing to help me appease the state, I will definitely treat Xiao Hou more politely."

When Li Tai said this, he looked at Xiao Xun who was silent.

Xiao Xun's body trembled when he felt this gaze, and after a moment of silence, he whispered again: "Thank you, Commander Li, for protecting this body. I, I will definitely help the governor to control the situation in the state."

(End of this chapter)