Thief Emperor

Chapter 516: Urgent Report

Almost all of Zhao Cheng's family died at the hands of the imperial court. Only his two married sisters escaped. However, because they were implicated in the case of General Zhao, Zhao Cheng's two brothers-in-law both lost their official positions and their family fell into poverty.

Therefore, the two sisters were naturally looked down upon by their husband's families, and one of them even died of depression because of this incident.

It was also because of this that after Zhao Cheng managed to escape with his life, he did not go to his two sisters, but returned to his hometown in Yuezhou to make a living on his own.

There is no need to say more about Meng Qing's family. The change in Hexi Village, Shidai County was caused by his family's affairs. He was the only one left in the whole family.

Even within Li Yun's group, these two people are first-rate traitors. They followed Li Yun not to become officials, but more to go against the imperial court.

In the past, Li Yun was an official in the court of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and neither of them said much. But now, after Li Yun was freed from the constraints of the court, they were probably the happiest people in the whole Jiangdong.

"Brother Meng."

Zhao Cheng pulled Meng Qing to sit down and said with a smile: "I have sent people to the border of Shouzhou. I will leave immediately to take Shouzhou when you arrive in Fengyang and take charge here."

"You stay in Fengyang and mainly watch to see if the Pinglu Army in the north will cross the Huai River to take Chuzhou and Haozhou. Leave the rest to me."

Meng Qing thought for a moment and said, "All the captains under the general's command are more capable than me. There is no need to call me over to defend the Huai River."

"But since the general has given this task to me, it means that I am being promoted. I will definitely complete the task assigned by the general."

Zhao Cheng smiled dumbly: "When I was your age, I wasn't as good at talking as you."

Meng Qing thought for a moment and replied, "General, I just say what I think."

Zhao Cheng smiled and didn't respond.

In fact, what Meng Qing said was very right. Zhao Cheng had quite a few generals under his command. Some of them were his old subordinates who had followed him during the Yuezhou Rebellion and were now recruited under his command.

With these people, there will be no problem in defending Fengyang.

The main reason for calling Meng Qing over, in addition to promoting Meng Qing, was that Li Yun's order only said that the Fengyang Army should assist Su Sheng in capturing Shuzhou and other states in Jiangbei, but did not let the Fengyang Army attack Shouzhou.

Zhao Cheng knew very well that Meng Qing had a very important position in Li Yun's eyes. With Meng Qing working on this matter with him, it would be easier to report it to Li Yun and pass his test.

The two of them worked out some specific combat details and garrison manpower, and then had a meal together.

The next morning, Zhao Chengxing hurriedly assembled 10,000 soldiers and marched westward from Fengyang, heading straight for Shouzhou.

Although Shouzhou at this time had a large number of Pinglu troops stationed there because it was adjacent to Zhao Cheng's troops, the number was far from tens of thousands. In addition, Shouzhou was not a particularly large city. Zhao Cheng's troops had not arrived yet, so the Pinglu troops in Shouzhou hurriedly began to ask for help from their superiors.

Shouzhou's request for help was sent by Qingzhou's spies across the Huai River at the fastest speed to the governor's mansion in Qingzhou.

At this time, General Zhou Xu was reading the handwritten letter sent by General Xiao Xian. After reading it from beginning to end, Zhou Xu stroked his beautiful beard and hummed, "Duke Dingguo? What a grand style."

Zhou Chang stood beside his father and whispered, "Dad, we were weaker than the Fanyang Army in the past, but in the past one or two years, the Fanyang Army has traveled thousands of miles to Guanzhong, and their strength has hardly increased. Our Pinglu Army is no longer afraid of the Fanyang Army."

"They took a piece of paper from the imperial court and asked us for our territory. How could it be so easy?"

During the time that General Xiao occupied the capital, he was not only conferred the title of Duke Dingguo by the court, but also served as the Recruiting and Observing Envoy of Hebei Province.

To put it more bluntly, the imperial court almost ceded Hebei Province to the Fanyang Jiedushi.

And now, General Xiao Xian is on his way back to Fan Yang, and there is some "overlap" of territory between the Fan Yang Army and the Pinglu Army.

To put it bluntly, the Pinglu Army had occupied several territories belonging to Hebei Province during this period, and now Xiao Xian had written a letter to ask for them back.

At this moment, whether it was the high-ranking officials in the court or the local military governors, they all tacitly acknowledged that the world would enter a long era of division that might last for dozens or even hundreds of years.

Because at this moment, the strength of each place is still relatively balanced, there is no situation where one place dominates, and no one has demonstrated enough ability to unify the world.

This is actually thanks to the previous emperor.

Although the previous emperor did not do much serious work, he was not too derelict in his duty as an emperor. At least he did a pretty good job in balancing the local forces. For example, Wei Quanzhong, the governor of Shuofang, whom he promoted, suppressed or balanced the power of other veteran governors very well, so that the local forces never got out of control.

Finally, the fundamental reason for the rapid decline of the Great Zhou Dynasty was that it was too weak and could no longer maintain the most basic situation, rather than the sudden rise of a certain force.

Moreover, precisely because the previous emperor had balanced the local forces very well, even though the imperial court is now quite weak, the local forces in various places are basically unable to do anything to each other.

Under this situation, if things continue to develop normally, we will indeed enter a long period of division and chaos, and it will take a very long time before the next unified dynasty emerges.

Li Tong, Xiao Xian, and even Zhou Xu all acquiesced to this situation.

It is also because of this situation that the territories that are seized now will basically become the territories of their "kingdom" in the future. Until now, even the territories of a state or a county have to be fought for.

More territory means more opportunities in the future. Even if you don’t fight for yourself, you should fight for your descendants and leave more capital for them.

Zhou Xu put his hands behind his back, looked at his son, then lowered his head to look at the document in his hand, and said to himself: "Hebei Dao Recruiting and Observing Envoy, this is the first time I have heard of such a strange official title."

This official position was simply a combination of the two positions of the imperial court's Observation and Disposal Commissioner and the Recruiting Commissioner.

In fact, it was not necessary to go through so much trouble. General Xiao could have been given the title of Governor of Hebei Province and Recruiting Envoy. However, it was estimated that the Emperor, or the civil servants in the court, were somewhat unhappy with General Xiao, so they forcibly created an official position for him, which seemed a bit inappropriate.

"Since we have occupied the state, we cannot give it up easily."

General Zhou had his hands behind his back, and was about to continue talking to his son, when someone rushed to the door, knelt on the ground, and said in a deep voice: "General, urgent news from Huainan!"

When General Zhou heard this, he was stunned at first, and then his eyelids twitched violently.

Seeing this, Zhou Chang was very sensible. He walked out quietly, asked the visitor about the situation, took the letter from him, and then returned to the room. At this time, the young general's face was not very good. He lowered his head and took a deep breath.

"Dad, that Li Yun has gone crazy. First he fought with the Wuchang army in Ezhou, and now...now all the Jiangdong soldiers in Fengyang have also started to move. Zhao Cheng is leading tens of thousands of Fengyang soldiers and is heading straight for Shouzhou!"

Upon hearing this news, General Zhou let out a breath and murmured, "This little brat really knows how to find the right time."

Zhou Chang clenched his fist and said angrily, "This Li Er, who was dismissed from office by the court, is still so arrogant. He attacked our Pinglu Army's territory without any reason. It's a waste of your father to condescend to become sworn brothers with him!"

"Like a mad dog!"

General Zhou laughed at himself and said, "At this time, he is no longer the chief officer of Jiangdong. He can shirk all responsibility for Jiangdong's affairs. If we send people to find him to ask for an explanation, he will definitely say this."

At this point, General Zhou looked towards the capital, shook his head slightly and said, "Those people in the capital are a bunch of idiots. How could they do such a stupid thing at this time?"

When local lords were fighting each other, the imperial court, being weak, naturally had to choose not to help at all and let the locals fight it out on their own. In the end, the imperial court would just be responsible for conferring official titles on the winners.

In this way, no matter who wins, the court will not lose, at least not on the surface.

Now, the court's act of dismissing Li Yun from his post seems quite stupid. Even if this act may have been instigated by Wei Quanzhong, it still seems extremely cowardly.

Zhou Chang looked at his father and whispered, "Dad, if Li Er really takes over the area south of the Huai River, even if he becomes powerful, it will be extremely difficult for us to go south again."

"As for the states in the north, we can just give them to the Fanyang Army. We can't abandon Jiangbei!"

General Zhou closed his eyes and thought for a long time, then he exhaled slowly and said, "Send more troops to Jiangbei and defend the prefectures and counties in Jiangbei. Remember, defense is the main thing, and don't attack if you can avoid it."

Zhou Chang responded and clasped his fists, saying, "I'll go call Uncle Luo and the others to arrange this matter."

After saying this, he lowered his head and left the tent.

General Zhou looked towards Guanzhong and murmured, "I will send a letter to the capital at an urgent speed of 600 miles to let you know... "

"What a stupid thing to do."

(End of this chapter)