Late Tang

"General, do you really want to send troops to help Li Lingfu attack Duli Town?" Returning from Qingnipu to the sea of ​​Wuhu Island, Zhao Jiang couldn't help but turn to Li Jing who had been standing on the deck without saying a word since boarding the ship.Zhao Jiang is a veteran. He lost his arm during the Battle of Cat Island. According to regulations, he could only withdraw from the team and be assigned to be a guard on the pier or workshop, or join the urban management team and security team. Forever in the team.

However, Li Jing kept him by his side as a personal guard, and now the leader of the Silver Spear Guards also served as Li Jing's personal entourage.This appreciation is not insignificant, and therefore, Zhao Jiang is full of affection for Li Jing and Shamen Town.Following Li Jing's side, he saw farther than before when he was scouting the capital.He knew very well how much Li Jing didn't want to fight Duli Town.In addition to Duli Town and Gao Chengjian, another reason is that when the general completely wiped out Fengzhang's forces and completely occupied Daxie Village, he had already set his sights on Ziqing in the farther west. town onshore.

Shamen Town is now actively preparing for the battle according to the general's order. The soldiers of each battalion are stepping up their training, and they are also making comprehensive preparations for logistics.Zhao Jiang could guess some reasons, the general was no longer satisfied with this corner of the sea, and was preparing to march on land.At such a time, he is absolutely unwilling to start another war in the backyard where he had finally achieved stability.

Li Jing turned around and did not directly reply to Zhao Jiang's words, but instead asked: "Zhao Jiang, just follow your own ideas, do you think we should fight this battle now?"

"I don't think we should fight. Li Lingfu is now blinded by hatred. Duli Town and Qingnipu have been feuds for centuries. The last time Li Lingfu proposed to Wang Putu, he didn't really intend to get married, but he just took advantage of the last big victory. In order to force Wang Pu to marry a daughter, he just wanted to insult Du Lizhen and Wang Pu. Now Wang Pu has put Li Lingfu on the other side, deliberately first agreeing to marry his daughter to the Li family, but directly marrying his daughter to the Li family. Sending it to you, General, is obviously killing two birds with one stone. That is, Li Lingfu was tricked and retaliated, and the seeds of suspicion and suspicion were planted in our two families, with the intention of separating our two families."

Zhao Jiang used some of the ways of thinking he had learned since following Li Jing, and analyzed this matter in detail, but he also spoke clearly and logically.

"Wang Pu gave us all the compensation, because they all saw that we were the biggest threat to Duli Town. After we got the money, he didn't pay Li Lingfu. I think it was their intention. It's a test, and Duli Town is testing our attitude. And now Wang Pu forced Li Lingfu's daughter-in-law to be his concubine himself, and his father-in-law married his daughter-in-law, which gave Li Lingfu a huge insult. I don't think it's Wang Pu too Arrogant, but they are deliberately provoking Li Lingfu, there must be some conspiracy hidden behind it."

"What kind of conspiracy do you think it will be?" Li Jing was a little interested in Zhao Jiang's analysis and encouraged him to continue.

"Most directly, I thought that Duli Town was trying to lure Li Lingfu. They wanted to lure him to send troops. Once Li Lingfu was stimulated to send troops to attack Duli Town, the strength of Duli Town remained. Attacking Duli Town, he will definitely lose. And if Duli Town is defeated, then we will lose a powerful ally to restrain Duli. Then the unfavorable situation that Duli Town has just been defeated can be reversed, so we don’t have to worry about it all the time Our two families are not good for them. This is a good move, divide and attack, and break them all."

Li Jing nodded. Zhao Jiang has really made great progress. He usually just occasionally talks about some strategic and tactical things with them guards. He has been able to analyze so many things by himself. Really good.

"Why does Naduli Town pay us compensation? This is a lot of money."

"It's to appease us, and it's also to paralyze us. We got such a large sum of money, so we naturally thought that Duli Town would not do anything else. In this way, they can focus on dealing with Qingnipu first."

Li Jing chuckled: "According to you, the series of actions after Duli Town's defeat were all purposeful. He gave us money to numb us. He didn't give money to Qingnipu, and deliberately provoked them. It is to lure them to attack. According to what you said, then we have to send troops to help Qingnipu, but your words revealed that we should not send troops, so you mean whether we should send troops or not?"

Zhao Jiang made a fuss with his one arm, and said in a somewhat embarrassed way: "From a tactical point of view, we should support Li Lingfu. But from a strategic point of view, we should not send troops."

"That's right, you actually know how to think about things from both tactical and strategic levels." Li Jing smiled.

Seeing that Li Jing remained silent again, Zhao Jiang couldn't help but asked anxiously: "The general means to send troops or not to send troops?"

"I mean, of course, it is necessary to send troops, but not to send troops."

"How do you say this?"

Li Jing sighed, he was really unwilling to send troops.But now he is unwilling to give up Qingnipu as an ally easily, and if Qingnipu loses, the situation in Liaohai will turn around, which will be extremely detrimental to his long-term arrangements.So, he has to fight.But Li Jing didn't want to really fight Duli Town, because there was no chance of winning this battle.How could he squander the money he had saved so hard.

When in Qingni City, Li Jing finally agreed to send troops.However, he also put forward many demands, saying that he had to make various preparations, let Li Lingfu go to win allies, and he himself also wanted to win allies, and said that he had to solve Beisha City first.In fact, everything was just a tactic to delay the attack. Faced with Duli Town's move, Li Jing could neither sit idly by, nor could he really follow Li Lingfu into the pit.

So the last thing he could think of was to procrastinate first.Pulling allies and retreating Beisha city soldiers are all delaying tactics.On the other hand, these actions are also putting pressure on Du Lizhen.What Li Jing hopes most is that Duli Town will finally be pressured to hand over the money that should be given to Li Lingfu, make an apology or something, and finally resolve this conflict crisis.Wang Xianzhi's Huangchao Rebellion is about to start, and the real stage is in the Central Plains, not Liaodong.

Although doing this seems to be sorry for Li Lingfu, in fact, Li Jing is really treating Li Jing well.The Li family controlled Qingnipu for a hundred years, and he didn't want it to be destroyed in the end because of Li Lingfu's impulsiveness.

The boat was sailing on the sea. Because of the war between Shamen Town, Daxie Village, Duli Town and Qingnipu, this most lively seaway in the north was once closed.Many caravan merchant ships are afraid that conflicts will break out at any time, so the ships in Dengzhou Port, Duli Port and Qingni Port are all parked in the port and dare not go to sea.At present, Shamen Town, Duli Town and Qingni Port have all announced the armistice agreement, and the sea has finally returned to its former bustle.

Standing on the deck, from time to time you can see fleets passing by at sea.Some fleets have only a few ships, while others have large fleets consisting of tens or hundreds of ships.These ships traveled along the coast and islands of Dengzhou to Liaodong, and then sailed eastward along the coast of Liaodong. Commodities shipped to the north from the Western Regions such as Fuzhou, Fuzhou, and Jiaozhou were brought to Bohai, Silla, and Japan.

"Those dozen or so boats ran so fast, they were all five-masted galleons. Wow, these dozen or so boats are so beautiful, and the flag on the bow is so strange, it's actually a mandala flower. Which family's caravan actually uses such a flower as a banner." Seeing that Li Jing was silent, Zhao Jiang looked at the merchant ships passing by a little bored, and suddenly became very interested in a fleet that was passing by in a hurry the way.

Mandala banner?

Li Jing's heart suddenly moved. "where?"

"what?"

"Where is the fleet with the Mandala Banner you just mentioned?" Li Jing asked loudly.Zhao Jiang was a little surprised, but still stretched out his hand and pointed to the east: "Here, over there, there are more than a dozen ships in this fleet, but they seem to be unloaded, and they run very fast, and the ships are not beautiful. .”

Li Jing looked along his hand, and sure enough, about a hundred or two hundred steps away, there was a fleet of ships sailing fast.Li Jing looked carefully at the flag on the boat, and sure enough, he saw a mandala flower on it.

Seeing this flower, Li Jing couldn't help but look solemn.He suddenly thought of Zhang Yingying, who had a dewy marriage, and Zhang Yingying had given him a big boat back then.But since then, Li Jing had wanted to look for her, but rarely saw her and her shark shark fleet.According to Cui Zhiyuan, Zhang Yingying's fleet mainly travels in the East China Sea and South China Sea, but rarely visits the Liaohai Sea.She travels between Bohai, Silla, Japan, and Yangzhou, Mingzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou and other places in the Tang Dynasty, and occasionally comes to Dengzhou in the north, but very few come.

He hadn't seen her for more than half a year, and now seeing the mandala flower banner, he immediately remembered that Zhang Yingying seemed to have said that it was the symbol of Princess Silla's golden mane.But Jin Man has been leading a group of assassins to hunt down Zhang Yingying all these years.Zhang Yingying fell into her trap last time in Chishan Fahuayuan. If he hadn't rescued her, she might have died.

Jin Man appeared here, could it be that Zhang Yingying is also nearby?

Li Jing's heart moved, and he suddenly turned his head and said: "Turn the rudder, and chase the fleet of Mandala flower banners in front of me, hurry up!"

"General, what happened?" Zhao Jiang couldn't help asking in surprise seeing that Li Jing's expression had changed.

"I ran into an old friend, and I want to catch up to meet and talk about it." Li Jing said with a little excitement in his heart.Thinking of Zhang Yingying, Li Jing suddenly felt excited to meet again.

(To be continued)