According to Li Jing, when entering Shu, the right time, place, and people are not with me. If we fail to make sufficient preparations in advance and rush to send troops to Shu, we will definitely lose.
Zhang Lun deeply agreed with Yu Wen Huo, but he was also very surprised. This person actually had some talents. No wonder he became the head of the country... Well, just like Li Po back then, once he got involved in nepotism, if he didn't have any great potential, then it would be a disaster.
Some people have said it.
Therefore, Zhang Lun and Yuwen Huo did not easily mobilize troops, but made preparations first. The pressure on the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household immediately increased.
"Several generals are leading an army that has fought hundreds of battles. They are about to enter an unpredictable place. It is necessary to make more preparations. Especially in winter, marching and fighting are not easy. Therefore, logistics is a heavy task. Whatever the soldiers in front say, you will do it. No
It is necessary to do more beaking.
There have been more wars this year, and life is not easy for everyone... But everyone must understand that the heart and soul of Qinchuan, the leader of Shu, are close to each other, so the battle in Shu this winter is a top priority, and there must be no slacking off."
Qu Tutong and others made their promise and said some other things before they all resigned.
The Turks withdrew their troops to the west, so they were able to make full preparations for the war in Shu. The left and right Yiwei armies just entered Shu first. Depending on the progress of the war, they may need to increase their troops.
This year, Kansai was turbulent and Li Yuan was defeated, but many beginnings and ends were left behind. In fact, other places were not peaceful either.
At the beginning of the year, when Dou Jiande saw the battle between Han King Li Po and Tang King Li Yuan, he drooled a little while looking at Luoyang, but he did not pick up the hot potato and turned around to manage Shandong.
He has basically pacified Hebei, but there are still some counties and counties in his hometown in Shandong that either fly the flag of the sun, moon and stars, or the flag of Li Yuan, and refuse to obey the control of King Xia.
At this time, Shandong, the birthplace of the war in the late Sui Dynasty and the place where the most violent resistance to the Sui Dynasty's rule was, was already sparsely populated and desolate.
Compared with today's Henan, it's really just the same.
So when Dou Jiande turned his attention back to his hometown, it didn't take much effort to clean up the mess. Almost as soon as the soldiers arrived, all the counties and counties became Xia soil.
Dou Jiande could only clean up his own territory a little, and then turned to look at the war in the west. If two powerful forces fight, one of them will be injured, and maybe he can get some advantages?
For example, a sneak attack on Yanmen, or even Jinyang? There was no shortage of such voices under Dou Jiande.
It's just that Li Yuan was defeated too quickly. In Dou Jiande's blink of an eye, Li Yuan was already defeated so hard that he even risked his own life.
After receiving the news that Xijing had been occupied by King Li Ding'an of Han Dynasty, Dou Jiande felt a chill on his back. For so many years, Li Ding'an and Li Yuan had been restraining each other and fighting one after another. He had no time to care about it, and his Xia Kingdom was still stable.
, and did not feel too much of a threat from Li Po.
But as soon as Li Yuan left, the situation immediately turned dangerous. The narrow road of Taihang was difficult to navigate, but Henan... Once the two capitals of the east and west were in hand, who else would be the opponent of Li Ding'an, King of Han Dynasty?
Dou Jiande's other talents were just that, his ability to watch and observe was absolutely top-notch. Otherwise, there were so many rebels in Shandong and Hebei, and the officers and soldiers were not easy to deal with, why would Old Dou be left to establish the Xia Kingdom?
Just because he was a soldier, he suddenly became the descendant of Queen Dou?
Seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages, and playing both sides is the only magic weapon for Dou Jiande to rise in troubled times. In other words, his grasp of the overall situation has always been accurate, and he is also very self-aware, and he thinks clearly about what to do when.
For example, in the past two years, he has been immersed in running Hebei. It is said that under his governance, Hebei has reached the point where people do not pick up lost things on the road and do not close their doors at night.
The statement is a bit exaggerated, and most of it was blown by them themselves, but Dou Jiande has indeed roughly completed the transformation from a bandit to a regular army in the past two years.
Tong Guangshou, the general of Yingyanglang, failed to follow the footsteps of his old employer during this process, and lost his head in confusion. In fact, he never understood until his death how he could conspire to kill his sworn brother, but his crime was this, conspiracy.
He rebelled and went to surrender to the King of Han, Li Ding'an.
If Li Po could hear Tong Guangshou's cries of injustice, he would definitely be a little angry, please, okay?
With Tong Guangshou being killed, Dou Jiande was also making final adjustments. The transition of a rebel leader to a feudal king would always be accompanied by bloodshed.
The "old brothers" who had followed him for many years and survived by chance were killed one after another when Tong Guangshou was implicated. Dou Jiande knew such people very well and did not give them any chance to make a comeback. Anyone who was on his blacklist was dropped.
brain.
For example, Gao Shida's cousin, Zuo Wuwei General Gao Shixing, was killed in the city as an accomplice of Tong Guangshou. Another example is that Zuo Wuwei General Wang Fubao also lost his head.
Both of these two were very prestigious generals in the Xia army. After being executed for their crimes, Dou Jiande suffered many sequelae, but Dou Jiande did it anyway because after becoming the emperor, he no longer needed any "old brothers"
, what he needs are ministers.
Tong Guangshou and others still adhered to the style of the peasant army, often calling Dou Jiande brothers and sisters, without any sense of being subordinates, and from time to time criticizing Dou Jiande's ideas.
Another important reason is that they did not deal with the various political groups headed by Pei Ju, Cao Dan, Ling Jing, Liu Bin and others, and the conflicts became increasingly fierce, so the purge came as scheduled.
Internal strife and purges are inevitable things that will happen when the rebels develop to a certain stage. The only difference is whether Dou Jiande kills someone else or someone else kills Dou Jiande.
Dou Jiande completed the transformation quite quietly, which is better than Wang Shichong and others. After all, he did not rush to start a few years ago, but waited for a suitable time, without external interference, and achieved a lot.
With the support of others, the brothers were sent to Huangquan Road together.
………………………………
Dou Jiande felt threatened, and after discussing with his ministers, he sent envoys to express his goodwill to Xiao Mian and hinted that Xiao Micai should be the master of Henan.
As long as the two families join forces, Li Ding'an will not dare to peek eastward.
If Dou Jiande's life is going well, then Xiao Mian's life is going downhill.
When Xiao Mian started his army, he also told his old brothers who supported him that we should share hardships and wealth together, but what he said was even less reliable than Dou Jiande, and his conduct was even worse.
After King Zhang Xiu of Qi was killed, King Dong Jingzhen of Jin was too afraid to return to the court and eventually died in Changsha. King Zheng Wenxiu of Chu died of illness in the palace of King Chu in Jiangling. King Lei Shimeng of Qin died in Kuizhou last year. In addition,
Yang Daosheng, the king of Song Dynasty, voted for Li Po.
Well, within two or three years, most of the people who started their careers following Xiao Mian died, and only King Xu Xuanche of Yan and King Wan Zan of Lu were still there.
Regardless of whether Xiao Mian was scrupulous or the two of them were already afraid of Xiao Mian, Xu Xuanche left the court and returned to his hometown claiming to be ill. It is said that he was intercepted and killed on the road and survived by luck.
As for Wan Zan, he honestly handed over his military power and returned to live in the palace. Even so, there are rumors that he almost died of poisoning several times.
The internal fighting was so fierce that the external offensive was naturally unsustainable. The attack on Kuizhou had long since stopped due to the death of King Qin.
After several years of tug-of-war, Changsha was once again occupied by Lin Shihong, and the Chu State, which was on the verge of destruction, seemed to have regained its breath.
Ning Changzhen, Wang Renshou and other former Sui generals no longer respected Xiao Xian as before. Although they were still under the banner of Liang Guo, everyone knew that it was impossible to instigate them.
Xiao Mian was actually not idle this year. Seeing that his strength was greatly reduced, Xiao Mian did not feel any regret. Instead, he spread rumors and slandered Qi King Zhang Xiu and others as ungrateful, unreasonable, bullying colleagues, colluding with party members, and dominating the court.
wait.
In addition to bringing bad reputations to the kings, this did not bring any benefit to Xiao Mian. The king was stupid and surrounded by villains, so Xiao Mian gave himself a few hats.
Xiao Mian kept making stupid moves as if he was possessed by a demon. Maybe he was just such a person, and he just barely suppressed his true nature while climbing up.
It's very much like the heroic demeanor of the late Jin Dynasty... wild and confused...
This year Xiao Mian heard that Han King Li Ding'an and Li Yuan were fighting again, and he was very "pleased". He felt that Li Yuan and Li Po had no resourcefulness and could only work hard without looking at the overall situation of the world.
He, Xiao Mian, is different. Now he has Jiang Biao, hundreds of thousands of powerful soldiers, internal saints and external kings, like Li Yuan, Li Ding'an, and Dou Jiande. How can they compete with him?
After discussing it with everyone, I felt that going north to Henan would easily lead to conflict with Dou Jiande, which would be a bit outweighing the gains. It would be better to continue attacking Kuizhou while Li Yuan was busy taking care of himself. If he could occupy the middle of Shu, the prospect would be wonderful.
So Zhang Zhenzhou, the general of Zuotunwei, was ordered to lead his army into Shu again and attack Kuizhou.
Then Xiao Mian ordered Ning Changzhen, Wang Renshou, Su Huer and others to lead their troops to attack Changsha. However, in the eyes of these three people, Changsha had become an ominous place.
Zhang Xiu was recalled to the court because of his contribution to Changsha, and was executed soon after. Dong Jingzhen guarded Changsha on Zhang Xiu's behalf, and later died in Changsha city.
Whether it is Ning Changzhen, Wang Renshou or Su Huer, they have all experienced those incidents, and they have also forged a lot of grudges. The emperor can think of it and let them attack the enemy in one place.
Kill someone with a borrowed knife?
So several people stood still, as if they had not received Jiangling's edict.
Xiao Mian was so angry that he wanted to order Zhou Faming, the Minister of War, to lead Huang Hu'er, the commander-in-chief, and Qiu He, the general manager of Jiangzhou, to conquer Wang Renshou and others.
Finally, his ministers couldn't stand it anymore. Although Ning Changzhen and others did not obey the edict, they still considered themselves ministers of the Liang Kingdom. If you send people to attack them, they will definitely rebel... So they persuaded them to stop the anger.
The king of.
News of Li Yuan's defeat reached Jiangling, causing a lot of shock. Just as Xiao Mian and his ministers were discussing how to deal with Li Ding'an in the future.
It happened that Dou Jiande's letter arrived, and the words in the words were very respectful, which barely diverted Xiao Mian's attention, so the issue of marching into Henan was brought up again.
This chapter has been completed!