Became a feudal lord in the late Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 131 Assassin

The moonlight is as soft as water, splashing in the courtyard, but only when you step outside can you feel the coolness hidden in the softness.

Tonight is the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Tomorrow, outside Yunzhou City, the nations will all make an alliance.

"We will meet tomorrow. I don't ask for territory or kingship. I just want to use my own strength to create ten years of peace. Yanyun has been fighting hard for a long time. I will do it."

"There are assassins!"

The pen in Liu Ling's hand stagnated slightly and he continued to write his diary. After writing the last few sentences, he picked up the saber on the table, stood up and walked out.

"put!"

Dozens of hand crossbows were all fired, and several masked assassins in black clothes were nailed to the ground. Liu Ling lifted the curtain and walked out, looking outside calmly.

Outside, a large number of Zhenyuan Army soldiers were waiting with swords in their hands. When they saw Liu Ling coming out, only the outermost soldiers still held their swords. Most of the soldiers sheathed their swords and bowed to salute.

"I've met the handsome man!"

"Who is keeping vigil today?" Liu Ling said calmly.

"It's a humble position."

"Go and lead the baton yourself."

The captain knelt down in front of Liu Ling and shouted: "You are humble and careless, let these beasts come within ten steps of the Chinese army camp, please give me death, the commander-in-chief!"

"Go get the stick, and then go to the front camp to lead the troops. If you don't have merit in battle, don't come back."

"Here!"

Liu Ling turned around, glanced at the horrific corpses of several assassins, and waved his hand.

"Hang their heads over the camp gate, chop their bodies into pieces, and throw them out to feed wild dogs."

"Here!"

The school captain led several patrolling soldiers and left to get the sticks. The surrounding soldiers breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to deal with the assassin's body. However, two soldiers in the crowd did not move. They were all staring at Liu Ling. Seeing him Looking at the corpse on the ground, the two took out daggers from their arms and rushed over without hesitation.

Liu Ling frowned when he heard the sudden sound of hurried footsteps. At the same time, he drew out the knife with his backhand and stepped aside to let an assassin pass.

The assassin who was behind was not surprised but delighted, and the dagger went straight to Liu Ling's door. However, from the corner of his eye, the assassin caught sight of Liu Ling turning the handle of the knife with two fingers of his right hand, holding the knife backwards, and the blade was reversed, already touching him. chest, because the entire blade was longer than the dagger, so the dagger took the first step and split his jaw open from bottom to top.

There was a heartbreaking sound of bones shattering. The corpse's head was pierced by the blade, slightly higher than Liu Ling's head. Blood continued to flow along the blade into his hand. He held the handle of the knife and exerted slight force, and the entire lower jaw was split. Kai's corpse slipped softly from his blade.

Liu Ling turned around holding the knife. On both sides, more than a dozen soldiers rushed out and hacked the other one to death with random swords.

Han Fang and others knew that there was an assassin in the army, and hurriedly got up and came over to inquire about the situation. Liu Ling looked around, nodded a few people to stay, and motioned for others to leave.

Liu Ling changed into clean clothes, returned to the main seat, sat down, and said in a deep voice to everyone:

"Tomorrow we will have an alliance, and people from the Song Dynasty will also be there. Our old acquaintances Liu Kai and Ma Kuo were imprisoned as soon as they returned. The person who came is called Xu Kangzong. Hehe, he is not a powerful character, but the one we need to watch out for is the Song Dynasty. What do people want to do this time?"

"The Song people have probably suffered the most losses this time." Han Fang thought for a while and replied.

Although the 100,000 troops led by Liu Yanqing were not completely wiped out in the northwest this time, Liu Yanqing and several "senior generals" were all in disgrace.

The northwest area of ​​the Song Dynasty was severely plundered by the Xia army; the land of Yanyun Thousand Miles was nominally returned to the Song Dynasty, but in fact it was all actually controlled by Liu Ling; The Song people called a truce. The Song people also believed that the Xia army had gone back on their word, so although the peace faction was very loud, the war faction also came forward this time, hoping that the court would allow them to teach the Xia people a lesson.

The imperial court wasted a lot of money and food, but now that both people and land were lost, the Song Dynasty court had a voice of peace from beginning to end, so this time it was probably necessary to use money and food resources to win over Yan Yun.

Liu Ling gave everyone some time to think, and then said slowly:

"There is a detailed report from the Song Dynasty. Tong Guan has been granted the title of Prince of Guangyang County for his role in recovering Yanyun."

Guangyang County is the nickname of Yanjing in the Song Dynasty. There were many county names in the Song Dynasty, but they are usually just nicknames and have no practical significance.

According to Song Shenzong's legacy, whoever recovers Yanyun will be crowned king. Naturally, Tong Guan can be crowned king based on his merits three years ago. However, compared to the actual situation today, it is a bit ironic no matter how you look at it, to crown Tong Guan as king at this time.

"Slightly modify tomorrow's charter. We will have an alliance tomorrow. Remember to remind me not to give the Song people any good face."

"I understand."

Liu Ling nodded slightly and talked with everyone about other things for a while. Finally, he motioned to Han Shizhong to stand up and brought a volume of maps next to the desk to everyone.

The map is newly drawn, and the labels everywhere are relatively simple.

"We can now expand to 100,000 troops. The land of Yan has surrendered long ago, and Yunzhong has now surrendered to me. The Jin people have promised that all the 700 miles of land south of Yinshan Mountain, east of Jiashan Mountain, and directly bordering Yunzhong will be returned to me. All mine.

The land behind the seven hundred miles of mountains, plus Yanyun, now I actually control more than two thousand miles of land, but the Jinpo Pass, Juyong Pass, Songting Pass, Gubeikou, Yuguan and the Great Wall in the north are all under the Jinren's control In his hands, the border that our army needs to defend becomes extremely long. If we divide our troops for defense everywhere, most of our troops will inevitably be dispersed. "

In fact, the Jin people were not only generous to others this time, but the land of Yinshan has never surrendered. There are many tribes in it with different interests and it is difficult to control. To the Jin people, it is no different from an enclave.

Moreover, the Jin people must have found out that the actual strength of the Zhenyuan Army was not that large.

The Kingdom of Jin was a complete country, and Liu Ling was just a lucky man. It was already a bit difficult to defend Yan with a Zhenyuan army, not to mention that after this time, Liu Ling's territory was directly expanded three times.

It's impossible for his military strength to triple all of a sudden, right?

Using the piece of land that he can no longer use to continue to expand the frontier that Liu Ling wants to guard, this business is not a loss at all.

The land is vast and sparsely populated, let's see how you can defend it.

A skinny camel is bigger than a horse. The Kingdom of Jin is currently exhausted in the country, but if it drags on Liu Ling, the latter will definitely be the first to be unable to bear it.

"It is better to make a new alliance with the Xia Kingdom or the Yinshan tribes, and promise to cede part of the land to the Xia Kingdom, or allow the Yinshan tribes to be autonomous. They only need to pay tribute on time and lead troops to fight." Someone suggested.

"It's not very safe." Liu Ling replied.

Three years of war have made him understand more and more: marriage and covenants can serve as bonds, but at the critical moment they are just a piece of waste paper. Only swords and fire can completely establish one's own rules.

The Xia Kingdom is a white-eyed wolf that is not well-raised, and the Yinshan tribes are even worse. Even the Jin people want to let go.

Han Fang said: "It is better to divide the prairie south of Yinshan Mountain into states, and ask the Song Dynasty court to grant territory, state names, official positions, allow the Song people to send officials to settle in, and at the same time, promise that the leaders of each tribe will serve as officials for generations to provide for Please be knighted.

In this way, in addition to you being able to immediately establish a level of interest with the Yinshan tribe, we can also make the Song people willingly pay a large sum of money for food. But Yunzhong and Yandi can only be governed by the officials, generals and schools appointed by Mr. Liu personally. "

(End of this chapter)