Thief Emperor

Chapter 403 Division and Growth

The three military governors have been gathered together for more than a day.

In this situation, no matter how unwilling General Wei Quanzhong was, he had to share Guanzhong with the other two governors, or in other words... share the imperial court.

Because if he disagreed, the other two military governors would advocate welcoming him back to the court and making them loyal subjects of the court. In this way, all the hard work of Shuofang over the years would be in vain.

Now that Wei Quanzhong had made concessions, the other two governors quickly reached a consensus with him.

They will guard the four passes of Guanzhong, occupy the entire Guanzhong, and will not let other Jiedushi in.

With the three military governors speaking in unison, even if the troops they had in Guanzhong were not all the troops of their respective fiefdoms, they were enough to guard the four passes and Guanzhong.

Once they occupied Guanzhong and brought the imperial court back, they would be able to obtain enough political benefits from the court. It would even be hard to say whether the emperor or the three military governors had the final say in the court.

The three generals gathered together and discussed the matter for three days. The Jiedushi of Fanyang and the Jiedushi of Hedong left one after another. General Wei saw them off. When the three of them parted, the Jiedushi of Hedong, Xiao Xian, left first and clasped his fists towards the two of them and said, "According to the agreement, ten days later, we will attack the capital together!"

"Then, we will welcome the Holy Emperor back to the capital together!"

Wei Quanzhong and Li Tong both clasped their fists in return and said hello in unison.

After General Xiao left, Hedong Jiedushi Li Tong quietly walked to his carriage.

Among the many military governors today, he is the oldest, already 67 years old. Although he can still ride a horse, he can no longer ride long distances and can only take a car.

He held the shaft of the cart with his hand, looked back at Wei Quanzhong beside him, and sighed, "Quanzhong."

General Wei was startled when he was called by his original name, then he stepped forward, but he was not annoyed. He just lowered his head and smiled, "Brother, do you have any other instructions?"

Wei Quanzhong is only fifty-two or fifty-three years old this year, half a generation younger than the Hedong Jiedushi, and he is a rising star. When Wei Quanzhong was still a captain, Li Tong was already a Jiedushi.

At that time, the two of them already knew each other.

Now, Wei Quanzhong calls Li Tong his brother, which is actually a shameless self-proclaimed title.

"I have something to advise you, please don't think I'm being long-winded."

"Brother, what are you talking about?"

General Wei smiled and said, "I will listen to your teachings, brother."

"Don't be too greedy, and don't get carried away and do stupid things."

Li Tong looked at him and got into the car silently: "In the current situation, whoever wants to stand out will be the first to be beaten. No one has the ability to swallow up others all at once."

"I don't have it, and neither do you."

Li Tong had already boarded the carriage. He looked at General Wei and said in a deep voice, "Quit while you are ahead."

"Even if the Wu family's business can no longer continue, I think it will not be a matter for our generation to decide the winner."

General Wei frowned and said in a deep voice: "Brother, I have contributed the most in the past two years!"

Li Tong lifted the curtain of the carriage and looked at him deeply: "You know in your heart whether your Shuofang Army contributed much and how they contributed."

"In the future, our generation will go to the underworld and meet the late emperor."

"We need to talk it out carefully."

After saying this, the Hedong Jiedushi closed his eyes and said slowly, "Let's go."

The warrior driving the carriage responded with a "yes", waved the whip, and the carriage slowly drove away.

It was already winter now, and the winter wind made General Wei Quanzhong feel a little cold.

He looked at the direction where General Li was going, clenched his fists, and said in a muffled voice: "The old man is so unreasonable!"

After saying this, he turned his head and looked at the capital city right in front of him, exhaling a breath of white air.

"I want to see what my generation will look like."

"Can we decide the winner?"

…………

Ten days later, the three military governors, together with the rebel army in Guanzhong, launched an attack on the capital.

At this time, there were less than 100,000 rebels left in the capital, and because the emperor of "Da Qi" was dead, the rebels in the city fought on their own and there was no communication at all.

The war was fought in a completely disorganized manner.

Originally, with such a big city to defend, as long as there were enough food and grass in the city, it would not be a problem to hold out for a few months or even half a year. But now, the rebels are attacking each other, and it has even come to a life-and-death situation.

After only five days of attacking the city, the Fanyang army entered the capital from the north gate. As the north gate fell, the rebels in the city became even more chaotic and began to flee the capital like crazy, trying to break out.

As a result, other directions were also lost one after another. About 30,000 to 40,000 rebels fled frantically from various city gates, but most of them ran into the elite troops of the Jiedushi head-on. Only a small number of lucky ones managed to escape from the encirclement despite the heavy siege.

A few days later, the armies of several military governors had completely occupied the capital city, and jointly posted notices to reassure the people. At the same time, they were hunting down rebels throughout the process, and anyone they caught would be executed on the spot.

Just as the three Jiedushi were meeting at the gate of the imperial city, another person came to report, knelt before the three, bowed his head and said, "General!"

"We captured several rebel leaders. They produced documents from the imperial court, saying that they had accepted the imperial court's amnesty and were ordered to kill the rebel leader, Wang Junping!"

The messenger bowed his head and said, "These people said that they are all heroes of the Great Zhou."

General Wei seemed to be thinking about something. He turned his head and looked at the other two generals. The other two looked straight ahead, as if they had not heard anything.

Are you kidding? If we acknowledge the contributions of these people at this time, wouldn’t their contribution to the restoration of the capital be greatly discounted?

"These traitors can make up any lie to survive."

General Wei waved his hand and said expressionlessly, "Kill them all."

"Yes!"

As the officer who brought the news left, Wei Quanzhong looked at the other two governors and asked with a smile, "Brothers, what should we do now?"

Li Tong put his hands behind his back and said, "The Shuofang Army has made the greatest contribution and will be stationed in the North City. I and my brother Xiao will occupy the East City and the West City respectively."

"Each of our troops will be stationed outside the city."

The Hedong Jiedushi looked at the other two and continued, "Then the three of us will submit a petition together, requesting the emperor to return to the capital. When the emperor leaves Xichuan, we will go out of the pass together to welcome the emperor back to the capital."

Fanyang Jiedushi Xiao Xian narrowed his eyes. He first looked at Li Tong, then at Wei Quanzhong, and then nodded slightly: "Just follow General Li's method."

"However, the letter must clearly state that it was our Fanyang Army that was the first to reach the city and break through."

The palace was in the north city. General Wei had taken advantage of this and was naturally happy. He said with a smile, "Of course, of course. Whoever is supposed to break into the city will break into it."

The three men quickly reached a consensus, and with just a few words, they divided up the capital city.

As for the Wu Zhou court, once it returned to Guanzhong, no one could predict whether it would be able to get rid of the feudal lords and become independent in the future.

Just as the main force of the rebels was wiped out and great changes were taking place in Guanzhong, Su Sheng, who was in Qiantang County in the southeast, also received a letter from Li Yun, as well as Meng Qing, who was sent by Li Yun to report the news.

After Meng Qing handed over the document, he bowed his head and said, "General Su, the envoy wants me to stay by your side and serve you, and conquer Luzhou together."

Su Sheng was reading Li Yun's document at the moment. After finishing, he looked up at Meng Qing and said with a smile, "I heard the envoy talk about you."

"He said that although you are young, you are very fierce and ruthless in fighting, and you are quite spiritual. You are a promising talent."

Su Sheng paused for a moment and then asked, "Will you join my army, or will you lead your own troops to join me in the battle?"

Meng Qing followed Deng Yang and experienced the Battle of Yangzhou. Now he is a brigade commander and has his own brigade.

After hearing what Su Sheng said, he lowered his head slightly and said, "General, I want to stay by your side and be your bodyguard."

Su Sheng thought for a moment, then patted Meng Qing on the shoulder and said with emotion: "It seems that the envoy wants to use you. Well, you can stay with me this time and be my guard captain."

Previously, Meng Qing followed Deng Yang, but Deng Yang was also a self-taught person and he only knew the battle formations but not the reasons behind them, so he had nothing to teach Meng Qing.

But Su Sheng can. This son of a general is qualified to be Meng Qing's teacher both in terms of practical experience and military theory.

Meng Qing was overjoyed when he heard this, and bowed his head deeply and said, "Thank you, General. Thank you, General!"

Su Sheng helped him up and asked, "The envoy sent you here. Do you have any other instructions?"

Meng Qing thought for a moment, then whispered, "General, before I came here, the envoy said that this is the first time that our Jiangdong Army has not participated in an expedition."

Having said this, Meng Qing stopped talking.

However, Su Sheng already understood it completely.

He nodded slightly and said, "Yes, at this scale, it doesn't make sense for the coach to fight every battle in person."

He stood up, looked outside, thought of his old father, and couldn't help but clench his fists.

"I will definitely do it for my father and for Jilang..."

"Fight this battle well."

(End of this chapter)