Thief Emperor

Chapter 866: Escape at the first sign of trouble

At this time, it was difficult for outsiders to understand Zhao Cheng's feelings.

Of course he knew who the person in front of him was!

After all, if you don't tell your name, there is no chance of meeting him.

He not only knew who Pei Huang was, but also knew his identity and his position within the current Wu Zhou small court.

The Nine Departments now have the Southwest Department, and the situation in Chengdu Prefecture is often sent to Zhao Cheng's desk. Although he dare not say that he knows everything about the Wu Zhou small court, he has seen the intelligence of some important people more than once.

At this time, the prime minister of Wu Zhou was standing in front of him, with a reserved look and a tone... that even had a hint of pleading.

This alone made Zhao Cheng feel refreshed.

Because most of the suffering he had experienced over the years, and the suffering his family had experienced, were caused by the Wu Zhou court.

Once upon a time, he escaped the beheading knife because he was not an adult.

On the way to exile, thanks to the rescue of his father's former subordinates, he was able to "faked his death" to escape, return to his hometown Yuezhou, keep a low profile, even changed his name, and carefully grew up.

In his entire first half of life, the Wu Zhou court was an unshakable behemoth.

Not to mention the prime minister, even a governor or a county magistrate could easily take his life.

During that period, Zhao Cheng was quite desperate. It was also for this reason that after he learned that Qiu Dian had rebelled, he went to Qiu Dian without saying a word.

No matter life or death, you have to fight.

And now, and now!
The Prime Minister of the Great Zhou just stood before him, with a humble demeanor and a pleading tone!
Zhao Cheng enjoyed this moment very much.

He even narrowed his eyes slightly, and then he said slowly: "I was wondering who it was, it turned out to be... Mr. Pei."

Pei Huang took a deep breath, looked up at Zhao Cheng, and continued: "General, the Jiannan Road pass has been opened. With the strength of the Jiangdong Army, the entire Jiannan Road will belong to you sooner or later, so there is no need to rush."

"After Pei leaves Jianzhou, he will gallop all the way. He will arrive in Luoyang in half a month at most to meet the King of Wu. I hope that the general will take action after Pei and the King of Wu have talked."

Zhao Cheng sneered: "The king ordered me to capture Jiannan Road. Without the king's order, no one can stop me from advancing westward. You, Prime Minister Pei, want to stop my 100,000-man army with just one word?"

At this time, Zhao Cheng did not have 100,000 men under his command, at least not in Jianzhou, but he had to brag about what he needed to do, at least to scare the enemy.

After General Zhao finished saying this, he squinted his eyes and looked at Pei Huang, murderous intent revealed in his eyes.

He wasn't pretending, he really wanted to...

Kill Pei Huang.

Because he knew clearly what Pei Huang wanted to do by going to Luoyang this time, which was nothing more than negotiation and peace talks.

A more accurate statement would be to beg for surrender.

I just want to negotiate the price for surrender.

But Zhao Cheng did not want to see this situation. He hoped that the Wu Zhou court would resist to the end, and then he would lead the Jiangdong army all the way to the city of Chengdu, and finally break into the city of Chengdu and kill most of the officials and nobles of the Wu Zhou court!
Finally, in the desperate eyes of the Dog Emperor, he took the Dog Emperor back to Luoyang and used the Dog Emperor to exchange for his own life's honor and wealth.

Pei Huang felt a chill down his spine when he was looked at by Zhao Cheng.

He was also a man who had experienced many ups and downs. Although he did not have any great abilities, at this moment, he clearly felt Zhao Cheng's murderous intent.

Pei Huang wiped the sweat from his forehead, raised his head to meet Zhao Cheng's gaze, and said in a hoarse voice: "General Zhao, everyone in the world is looking at Jianzhou at this moment!"

These words brought Zhao Cheng back to his senses.

He was also a smart man. He could tell that the "people in the world" in Pei Huang's words was not referring to everyone in the world, but to a large extent, was referring to Li Yun alone.

This means that Li Yun’s eyes have always been on Jianzhou.

Zhao Cheng was silent for a while, lowered his head to drink a sip of tea, snorted, and said lightly: "I have no control over what you want to talk to my king about. I only know that before the king's order to stop the advance arrives, I will fight as I should."

At this point, he looked at Pei Huang and said expressionlessly, "Chengqi, send Pei Xianggong out and have someone take him out of Jiameng Pass."

Zhao Chengqi on the side nodded immediately, took Pei Huang out, arranged people to escort Pei Huang out of Jiameng Pass.

After seeing Pei Huang off, Zhao Chengqi returned to Zhao Cheng and poured him some tea. Then he thought for a moment and asked, "Uncle, will the king negotiate with them?"

Zhao Cheng looked up at him, then looked down at the documents on his desk: "You haven't met the king yet. When you meet him, you will know what kind of person the king is."

"Your Majesty, if he doesn't get any benefits on the battlefield, he will find a way to get them on the table. Not to mention that Jiannan Dao is just a piece of cake now."

At this point, his voice became hoarse: "I am only worried that the king will favor the family of the tyrants."

Zhao Chengqi lowered his head and thought for a while: "Uncle, I don't think so."

"Even if you are the king... you still have to consider your uncle and General Su's ideas."

Zhao Cheng looked up at his nephew and smiled silently.

"You little brat." "You are a little brat."

………………

Guanzhong capital.

General Wei was sitting in a hot spring pool wearing only a robe, with his naked body exposed. His robe was soaked in the water, but he didn't care at all.

In the pool, there were at least a dozen beauties, who were also half-dressed, playing and fighting. Some of them even stuck close to General Wei, some pinched his shoulders and pounded his legs, some tilted their heads back to take a sip of wine, and then gave him a sweet kiss, acting as the "leather cup" for General Wei.

In the midst of drunkenness, a concubine with complete clothes on carefully pushed the door open and walked in. She knelt beside Wei Quanzhong and said with her head lowered, "My lord, the prince is outside and said he has something important to report to you."

General Wei frowned, then stood up, splashing water and causing the beauties nearby to exclaim in surprise.

The woman who was close to him lost her balance and fell into the pool.

General Wei didn't care at all. He stood up and turned to walk away, saying as he walked, "Change my clothes."

"Yes."

Several concubines immediately followed and changed the general into a new set of clothes. After changing clothes, General Wei walked out with his hands behind his back and came to the main hall, where he saw his eldest son Wei Yao, who had been waiting for a long time.

Seeing his father coming in, Wei Yao stood up and sighed: "Father, how can you indulge in wine and women like this?"

Wei Quanzhong sat down in the main seat without any hesitation, looked up and glanced at his son, and groaned, "You little brat, have you played less than me? Every day someone comes here and tells me what you did! Your house is almost full of women, right?"

Wei Yao lowered his head and sighed: "It's the same for me... nothing else to do."

General Wei snorted and stopped talking.

Wei Yao looked up at his father and whispered, "We just received a report that the Jiangdong Army, which was attacking Jiameng Pass from Jiangnan West Road, had successfully broken into Jiameng Pass more than ten days ago. At this moment, it is estimated that they have occupied the entire Jianzhou!"

Jiameng Pass is too far away from the capital, and the Jiangdong Army is expanding too fast, making it difficult to deploy intelligence personnel. As a result, it was not until half a month after Jiameng Pass was breached that the father and son finally received the news.

Wei Quanzhong was stunned. He looked at his son and frowned, "Did we get this news ourselves, or did we get it from Chengdu?"

Wei Yao smiled bitterly and said, "There is no news from Chengdu Prefecture. This matter was only discovered by our own people."

"And it's absolutely true."

Wei Quanzhong frowned and said, "Jiameng Pass and Jianmen Pass are both well-known for their strategic locations. How long has it been since the Jiangdong Army broke through?"

"Could it be that there are spies from the Jiangdong Army among the garrisons at Jiameng Pass?"

"My son also suspects so."

Wei Yao lowered his head and said slowly: "The Nine Departments of Jiangdong are omnipresent, not only in Jiannan Road, but also in Guanzhong. I guess there are quite a few of their personnel right now."

"Dad, this Li Yun is really ambitious."

"After he occupied Hebei in the Central Plains and withdrew his troops from Hebei Province, everyone thought that he would stop for a year or two. Even though he marched from Shannan West Province this time, we all thought that he wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to take over Shannan West Province."

“I didn’t expect that he would go straight into Jiannan!”

Wei Yao murmured, "He is so energetic that he won't stop for even a moment."

"He's just a bully in his own home."

In order to save face, General Wei snorted, "If they were really that powerful, why didn't they move north after reaching Cangzhou in Hebei Province? He didn't even dare to go and take a look at Youyan, which was occupied by the Khitans."

Wei Yao nodded and said yes, then looked at his father and asked, "Dad, what should we do now? If we don't support Jiannan Road, the Jiangdong Army will take over Jiannan Road this year, and Guanzhong will be taken over next year."

"Support, how to support?"

"If we send troops to Jiannan Road, let alone whether we can get in, even if we do, I'm afraid the emperor's imperial guards will immediately start a fight with us."

"Just wait. Just wait."

Wei Quanzhong narrowed his eyes and said in a hoarse voice: "We still have at least one year. In this year, we should rob and take what we should in Guanzhong. If we are unlucky next year and are defeated by Li Er, and are forced to withdraw from Guanzhong, we should take all these good things with us."

"Let's withdraw to Lingzhou first and go back to Shuofang."

General Wei has completely lost his fighting spirit at this moment.

Especially after fighting with Li Yun several times, he had even less confidence.

"If we can't stay in Shuofang any longer, we will retreat westwards, to the Western Regions, to Tubo..."

He looked at Wei Yao with an expressionless face.

"There will always be a place for you and me, father and son, to settle down."

(End of this chapter)