Late Tang

Li Tangbin left a thousand cavalrymen on the bank, and he led a dozen cavalry officers to greet them. Twenty steps before Li Ke used his horse, they rolled off their saddles and walked to the Hedong Army.Li Tangbin cleared his throat, "King Jin, under the command of King Liang, Li Tangbin is here to welcome King Jin, and King Liang is waiting here at Wang Mandu." He said to Li Keyong in a cautious and polite tone, " We have already prepared banquets and labor supplies in Biancheng, Liang Wang and I are very grateful to the soldiers and common people of the Liang Fan, and we are very grateful to Jin Wang for traveling thousands of miles south to help."

Li Ke sat astride the horse and looked down at Li Tangbin a few times, without even getting off the horse.

"Why didn't King Liang come?" An Jinjun seemed to be talking to himself, but the loud voice made it clear for everyone present.Li Tangbin frowned, but pretended not to hear.When he came, Zhu Wen had already told him that Li Keyong was rebellious, arrogant and arrogant, if there was any frivolity in his words, just pretend he didn't hear it.

"The king of Liang asked someone to apologize to the king of Jin. He is leading people to prepare for the military supplies of the soldiers of Hedong, and is preparing a temporary camp for the Hedong army."

Li Keyong nodded, "In this case, let General Li lead the way."

Li Tangbin returned to the shore and remounted his horse, leading a thousand beam riders to lead the way.

An Jinjun followed Li Keyong on horseback, "This Zhu Asan should have come out to greet us in person." He said dissatisfiedly, "We came to 'reinforce' Liang Fan, but he actually put on Liang Fan's face." The king is putting on airs, does he really think that he can sit on an equal footing with the king, or is he putting on the airs of the king's 'yi brother'?"

"When you chop off his head with one knife, brother, let's take a good look at his appearance then." An Jinquan said to his brother with a smile.On the surface, Li Keyong and Zhu Wen are the same vassal kings, each of them is a commander in chief, and they are both adopted sons of Yang Fuguang.But in fact, none of the soldiers in Hedong felt that Zhu Wen was qualified to be on an equal footing with Li Keyong.An Jinquan was wondering with some doubts, is Zhu Wen being contemptuous, or is he being wary?

The team went all the way, and two days later, they arrived at Wangmandu, an important passage between Zhengzhou and Bianzhou, located on the Bianhe River.

Wangmandu was an important water and land transportation hub on the Bianhe Canal during the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties. It was guarded between Luoyang and Bianzhou, and a large number of troops were stationed all year round.When Huang Chao was rampant in the world, he crossed the river here twice, fought against the government and army twice, and suffered heavy losses.

At this time, three military towns were built at the Bian River at the junction of Zhengzhou and Bianzhou, namely Wansheng Military Town on the north bank of Zhengzhou, Wangmandu Military Town on the south bank, and Bajiao Military Town on the south bank of Bianzhou.These three military towns formed horns, guarding the waterway in the middle of Zhengbian to rush up.It is an important gateway city of Xuanwu Town, especially for Bianzhou, the residence of Xuanwu's commander-in-chief, the three military towns in the northwest are extremely dangerous.Here, Zhu Wen stationed a heavy army all year round, as many as 2 horses.It is not only guarding against Heyang and Wei Bo on the other side of the Yellow River, but also focusing on guarding against Huazhou, the original Yicheng Town that has been incorporated into Shandong Province by Li Jing.Of course, deploying heavy troops here is also faintly guarding against Luoyang.

Although Zhu Wen did not have the prestige of Li Keyong and Li Jing, and he was also a different kind in the Chang'an court, but this emerging warlord who was the same age as Li Jing and just over [-] years old was by no means simple.Ten years ago, Zhu Wen was just a swineherd, but in the following years, he made several major choices, each of which made him leap forward.The first time he left Xuzhou Landlord Liu's house to join the army, the second time he was forced to leave the Qin army and stayed in Xuanwu Town for a short time before defecting to Huang Chao, and the third time he resolutely betrayed Huang Chao and surrendered The Tang Dynasty.After several choices, the former swineherd finally made a magnificent turn ten years later and became the top ten military commander in the world today. The king holds an army of [-].

Zhu Wen is very young, just in his early thirties, but his face looks more mature than it actually is, with a big beard and dark face, making him look like he is about forty.After many years of fighting, he no longer has the rascal energy of when the landlord's family fed the pigs, but instead has the majesty of a superior.He rode a big black horse named Wulongqu.He wears a set of mountain-pattern armor, a phoenix-winged hood on his head, a golden sheathed horizontal knife on his waist, and a horse lance hanging on the saddle.Dressed neatly, Zhu Wen is majestic and majestic, with the demeanor of a general who is as immobile as a mountain.

Beside him is Zhu Wen's wife, Princess Liang, the daughter of Xuzhou Liu Yuanwai who took Zhu Wen in at the beginning.After Zhu Wen became king, he sent people to Xuzhou to bring his family to Bianzhou.Although Zhu Wen has had many women and several children over the years, he has never been formally married.At the suggestion of Zhu Wen's mother Wang Shi, Zhu Wen simply married Liu Yuanwai's young daughter as his wife.The once high-ranking daughter of the master's family is now Zhu Wen's wife.The Liu family of the wealthy family can't be said to be very beautiful, but Xiaojiabiyu is more gentle and considerate.At this time, Zhu Wen took his wife and a group of Liang Fan generals to Wang Mandu on the border of Bianzheng to welcome Li Keyong in person, with full sincerity.

"Brother, please forgive me for not being able to go to Xingze to greet him in person." Zhu Wen stepped forward with a smile.

"A certain person also came here under the order of the imperial court. They are all serving the imperial court. Why are you so polite?" He stretched out his hand not to hit the smiling face. Besides, in Li Keyong's eyes, Zhu Wen was already a dead person, so there was no need for him. Forget about the trivial matter of Zhu Wen calling him his brother-in-law.

"Anyway, my brother is very happy to lead the troops to help. Someone has already prepared a banquet in Bianzhou City, and set up a military tent outside Bianzhou City, and prepared a lot of wine and meat , for the brothers in Hedong to drink and eat." Zhu Wen came up and took Li Keyong's hand with great enthusiasm.It seems that he doesn't remember the unpleasant experience in the few meetings with Li Keyong.It doesn't matter if Li Ke is mad or arrogant, but as long as he comes to reinforce and assist him under the order of the court, Zhu Wen doesn't care about the others.For Zhu Wen, it is very important to bring back the three prefectures of Chen, Hao, and Ying among the four prefectures that the imperial court and Li Jing negotiated to return.For this reason, it is worthwhile to bear with Li Ke.

"Let's go, brother, I have prepared a lot of good things for my brother, I am sure you will like it." Zhu Wen and Li Keyong walked side by side.

After Zhu Wen met Li Keyong at Wang Mandu, the two troops joined forces and returned to Bianzhou.

Arriving outside Bianzhou City, Zhu Wen arranged Li Ke's 2 horses in a temporary camp twenty miles outside Bianzhou City.

Bianzhou, the land of Zheng in the Spring and Autumn Period, the capital of Wei in the Warring States Period.Chenliu is the center of the world, the suburbs extending in all directions, especially after the opening of the North-South Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty, Bianzhou, which is closely guarding the Bianhe Canal, has become more and more important.This is also the reason why Zhu Wen has been refusing to transfer the center of Liangfan to Jinshang or Shanguo even though Zhu Wen now controls the territory of the three towns and the traditional four states of Xuanwu Town.This is too important, whether it is military or economic, it is quite important, and it is impossible for Zhu Wen to give up lightly.

After Li Keyong left the army outside the city, he entered the city with only 500 tooth army guards.Zhu Wen felt that Li Keyong had brought too many people, but he couldn't explain it clearly, so he had to follow Li Keyong's wishes.After entering the city, he took Li Keyong to Shangyuan Yizhong, the newly renovated and largest post station in Bianzhou City.This is a building similar to a didian that integrates a post station and a hotel.Even the 500 people arranged for Li Ke are more than enough, and there is even a big restaurant inside, which is just used for entertaining Li Ke this time.

After chatting with Li Keyong and others for a while, Zhu Wen left Li Keyong and others to rest, and retreated by himself.He went straight back to the handsome mansion, and as soon as he went back, Xie Tong came to him immediately.

In the festival hall, not only Xie Tong was there, but also Zhu Zhen, Ding Hui, Pang Shigu, Li Yun, Deng Jiyun, Li Chongyin, Zhu Chongjie, Kang Huaizhen, Li Fan, Niu Cunjie, Shi Shucong, Sima Ye, etc. All the generals in Bian have arrived. Except for a group of generals such as brother Zhu Cun in Jinshang and Shaanxi, the rest of the generals have already arrived.

All the generals looked serious and sat there without saying a word.

In addition, there was a man sitting warmly in front of the charcoal brazier, wearing a merchant's silk robe.

"Yang Yanhong!" Zhu Wen recognized him.Yang Yanhong is a general under Zhu Wen, but he is not an ordinary general, because Yang Yanhong is the chief intelligence officer under Zhu Wen.Now almost every feudal town has its own intelligence agency, such as the Supervisory Office of the Qin Fan, the Staff Party Secretary of the Chang'an court, the challenger of Xichuan in Chengdu, and the Chazi of Huainan.Zhu Wen also has such an organization called Luoyan Capital.Zhu Wen's Liang army had three pro-armies, namely Luoyan Capital, Tianxing Capital, and Golden Spear Capital.Among them, Tianxing and Jinqiang are both the front guards of the account, but Luoyandu is a group called the front guards, which is actually a monitoring and intelligence agency.Monitor the generals internally and spy on intelligence externally.Yang Yanhong is the military envoy of Luoyan Capital.

"Your Majesty!"

"Why did you come back suddenly?" Zhu Wen felt that something was wrong. Yang Yanhong had just been secretly sent to Yanjing by him not long ago to spy on the Qin Fan peace talks.But now the peace agreement has been reached, but Yang Yanhong suddenly came back in this attire, coupled with those gloomy faces, there must be something wrong.Immediately asked: "What's going on?"

"I inquired about a piece of news when I was in Yanjiu. I was too shocked, so I didn't dare to delay. I rushed back day and night and reported it to the king in person."

"What news?"

Yang Yanhong said: "What is the real content of the peace talks between the imperial court and Qin Fan?"

"The real content of the peace talks?" Zhu Wen seemed to be in doubt, but his face began to turn ugly.The meaning implied in this name made him feel bad for a while.

"In the content of the peace talks between Li Jing and the imperial court, the four prefectures of Cai, Chen, Hao, and Ying were not assigned to the imperial court at all. Instead, the imperial court assigned the four prefectures to the Qin Fan!" Yang Yanhong said somewhat mournfully.

"More than that." Xie Tong added, "General Yang also discovered that the imperial court not only assigned the four prefectures in western Henan to Li Jing, but also assigned Bianzhou to Qin Fan in the content of the peace agreement. Moreover, there are also A secret clause...."

"What is it?" Zhu Wen asked in a low voice, his face became darker and darker, and he keenly felt that he was plotted by someone and fell into a big pit.This made him feel uneasy, and he immediately thought of Li Keyong and his [-] Hedong Army who suddenly came from Hedong for reinforcements under the order of the court.Out of the nine towns in the south, there were only three towns left. He should have noticed something was wrong long ago.Li Keyong did not have a good relationship with him. On the contrary, Li Keyong had always expressed contempt for him unabashedly in the past.Why did he suddenly come to Henan to reinforce him this time?It's a pity that he has been letting down his vigilance because of the peace talks before.

Since Yang Fuguang gave him a fake agreement to hide the real terms of the agreement, it would definitely not be a good thing for Li Ke to appear at this time.

"Li Jing and Yang Fuguang still have a secret agreement, that is the imperial court, the imperial court wants..."

"Li Jing asked Yang Fuguang to present the king's head, isn't that true?" Zhu Wen's voice became colder and colder.

"Indeed." Yang Yanhong felt a sudden chill all over his body.

Zhu Wen said coldly, his face livid, and said slowly: "No wonder the people we sent to Chen Yinghao's three states were killed, and no wonder Li Keyong came to reinforce with such kindness. It turned out that this was all a trap. They all want to put the king to death."

Xie Tong said on the side: "Shouldn't you be more cautious about this matter? Let's find out a little bit before we talk about it. Be careful if there is a fraud in it, if it is a conspiracy by the Qin people, it will be troublesome."

"Where did you get this news?" Although Zhu Wen had an intuition that the matter was true, he still tried his best to restrain himself and turned to Yang Yanhong.

"This news came from a letter that I found next to my bed when I woke up one morning when I was in Yanjing. It contained detailed content of the agreement." Yang Yanhong took out the mysteriously appearing letter as he spoke. .Zhu Wen took it and read it carefully. The letter contained the content of the peace agreement, but it was somewhat different from the result of the peace agreement given to him by Yang Fuguang.There are some differences in several key points. These differences are exactly what Yang Yanhong said just now, and they are aimed at Liang Fan.

"Suddenly?"

This news made Zhu Wen a little uncertain.

"This letter must have been left by Li Jing's people. This is a clumsy counter-measure, trying to cause internal strife between Liang and Jin, between Liang Fan and Chang'an." Zhu Zhen said.

Zhu Wen didn't believe that the matter was that simple. It was precisely because this matter seemed too much like a conspiracy, so the more he thought it was not so simple.Li Jing is not a fool, if it was really a trick, he wouldn't use it so clumsily.

"Maybe what is said in this letter is true?" Zhu Wen whispered.

"How is this possible? If it is true, why did Li Jing remind us?" Shi Shuzong asked suspiciously.

The two counselors Xie Tong and Hu Zhen said in unison, "In order to muddy the water."

If the matter is true and Liang Fan is not prepared, it is very likely that Yang Fuguang and Li Keyong will join forces to suddenly wipe out the result.Such a result is of course beneficial to the Yang family and Li Keyong, but it is definitely not good news for Qin Fan.But if Zhu Wen knew about this matter, then with Liang Fan's strength, they would definitely not be able to wipe them out in one fell swoop. The biggest possibility is that Zhu Wen and the Chang'an court turned against each other, and the two sides started fighting, and it was even difficult to tell the winner for a while.Such a result should be in the best interest of Qin Fan.Thinking about it this way, I feel more and more that this matter may be true.

"What shall we do now?" Zhu Zhen asked Zhu Wen.

Zhu Wen was silent for a while, he was thinking about it, he had to make a major decision.Just like the previous decisions that changed his life, this will also be a decision that may change his fate for the rest of his life.He had to judge first, whether this was Qin Fan's countermeasure, or it was really a conspiracy by Yang Fuguang!

"I think this is true. One-eyed wolves have always looked down on us, but this time they came all the way to help us. If something goes wrong, there must be a demon. I don't think I need to think about it. It's better to act first, and then we will suffer. Let's act first In order to be strong, we directly surrounded Li Keyong and killed him, and then sent troops to attack the Hedong military camp outside the city, destroying them first."

"That's right, Li Ya'er, who killed Gouyue, made him look down on us."

"Just kill Li Ya'er, and then send troops to Luoyang. Let's kill old man Yang Fuguang too. Damn it, how dare you blackmail us."

However, among the generals, there were some who were more prudent and felt that they should be more cautious. Some even proposed to send this secret letter to Yang Fuguang. "If the letter is fake, then the misunderstanding will naturally be cleared up. If the letter is true, I believe Yang Fuguang will not dare to take any further action after reading the letter. If Yang Fuguang can cancel the plan, I think it is better to bear it first. After all, If we really want to fight against the imperial court, we still can't twist our arms and thighs, let alone, everyone, don't forget that Li Jing is still eyeing him?"

Those who made such remarks were naturally the two counselors Xie Tong and Hu Zhen.Xie Tong is Zhu Wen's left Sima, and Hu Zhen is his right Sima.These two were Zhu Wen's wise men among Liang Fan.Their proposal is also the result of careful consideration.The current Liang Fan is not strong.Although it has three towns, the territory of these three towns is too scattered, and the strategic situation is not good.They have Li Jing of Qin Fan in the east, Yang Fuguang of Luoyang in the west, Wang Chongrong and Li Keyong of Hedong in the north, and Sanchuan of Tian Lingzi in the south.It can be said that they are completely surviving in the cracks of the major leagues.Right now they are attached to the Yang brothers in Chang'an, and the situation is not bad.But if they really fall out with the Yang family, let alone whether they can beat the Chang'an court and the armies of the towns headed by the Yang brothers.Even if they live on Chang'an's side for confrontation, there is a stronger Li Jing behind him.If the two tigers are fighting, then Li Jing will come to reap the benefits of the fisherman, and that will be a disaster.

Therefore, out of various considerations, the two counselors still felt that it would be better to make half of the matter clear, to let Yang Fuguang know that they had already prepared, and force them to give up dealing with Liang Fan.As long as the matter is clear, but the face is not torn apart, then in the end, this balanced situation can be barely maintained.

However, everyone was arguing endlessly, but Zhu Wen was noncommittal, he was still thinking about it! (To be continued.)