Although the mission was not completed and he rested for a night in Shouchun, Sun Sheng still made a request to return to Jinling to resurrect Li Jing, but Liu Chengyou refused. Then, Sun Sheng found that he had been placed under house arrest. However, according to the official statement, He became the guest of the Han Emperor and traveled south to Hefei with his emperor.
As for the reply from Jinling, one of the accompanying officials was released and asked to go back and report back to Li Jing. So, two days later, Li Jing learned in Jinling that Sun Sheng was not a good scholar in front of the Han Emperor. , made rude remarks, angered the Han Emperor, and in turn angered his troops, who completely marched southward.
In the past two days, the areas along the Yangtze River in the Southern Tang Dynasty were full of warnings. There was no place in Yang, Tai, Chu, He, Shu, and Huang that was not invaded by the Han army. Other places were not mentioned for the time being. Yang, Chu, and the three states. It almost points directly to Jinling. Especially after the Han army increased its troops and went south, many Jiangfang garrison and military towns in the Southern Tang Dynasty were lost.
"I was not kind to my employing people. I sent Sun Sheng to the north to negotiate peace. I never thought that his strong temper would offend the Han Emperor and provoke his army to go south." In the main hall of the Tang Palace, Li Jing sighed sadly and looked at the officials in the palace: "Only Murong Murong Yanzhao and other generals have made garrison defenses along the river, and everything is in danger. Now that the Northern Han army is moving south, how can we stop it? How should I respond?"
There were not many people in the palace at this time, but the current political demands were the same. Lord He, Han Xizai and others had been clamoring and asking Li Jing for orders in the past few days, hoping that he would be determined to resist the Han and persist to the end. , don't make peace with him. If he annoys Li Jing, he just keeps silent.
"Your Majesty, based on my opinion, for the current plan, we can only send envoys north to pay homage to the Han Emperor to express his anger and respect my sincerity in making peace." Wei Cen, the admonishing doctor, stood up and replied.
After he finished speaking, Feng Yansi stood up and said cautiously: "Your Majesty, as I see it, I am afraid that the anger of the Han Emperor was not all caused by Duke Sun. The Han Emperor was ambitious and greedy. If he could not satisfy his gluttonous heart, , I am afraid that it will be difficult for him to withdraw his troops. If our court wants to negotiate for peace, we must think carefully about the price we have to pay before we can move the Han Emperor's heart!"
Feng Yansi's words were straightforward but also cryptic. There were some things that only Li Jing could do by himself. Li Jing obviously understood what he meant. He glanced at Feng Yansi and his face became serious.
After a long time, he sighed sadly and said: "I sent another envoy to the north with generous gifts. I told the Emperor of Han that I was willing to become a minister and pay tribute, and to secede the six states of Guang, Shou, Hao, Si, Chu, and Hai with the Han Dynasty. I hope to see them You can stop the troops!"
After saying this imperial edict, not only Li Jing, but also the ministers of the peace faction present subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief. Feng Yansi and others actually had the same idea. As the weaker party, if they advocated peace, they would of course have to pay a big price. But the specific cost must be considered by the emperor himself. If the ministers speak for themselves and the country is humiliated and the emperor regrets it, there will be no good fruits.
After making a "difficult" decision, the question came again. Who is willing to be an envoy? Li Jing asked. The ministers were silent and lowered their heads subconsciously. No one was willing to be an envoy. This was not a good job. Don't say In addition, Sun Shengke was detained in the north by the Han Emperor.
Seeing the reaction of these ministers, Li Jing couldn't help but get angry: "You, who live on the emperor's salary and receive the favor of the country, are not willing to share the worries of your emperor and father? Do you want me to go north in person to beg for peace from the Han Emperor? This is a loss for the country. Do you want me to bear the humiliation alone?"
After Li Jing finished speaking, all the courtiers remained silent and pretended to be dead. Li Jing's expression became more and more anxious. At this time, Zhong Mo, a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy and the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, stood up and prostrated himself, with tears in his eyes, and spoke in a tone of voice. Choking with sobs, he said: "I would like to take a trip to Jiangbei for Your Majesty!"
Someone took the initiative, and the tensed nerves of the courtiers present finally relaxed. When Li Jing saw this, his eyes were red, and he lowered his rank to help Zhong Mo up personally: "Zhong Qing has the experience of envoys to the Han Dynasty. He must achieve his mission when he goes north. I'm sorry!"
Zhong Mo sighed, gritted his teeth and said: "You have a destiny, and I will take care of your worries. Please rest assured, Your Majesty!"
"I would like to go with Mr. Zhong!" At this time, another minister came forward, but it was Li Deming, a bachelor of arts and sciences.
Seeing the solemn look on his face, Li Jing was so moved that he had the feeling that "the strong wind knows the strong grass, and the rough and turbulent waves know the loyal ministers". Without further words, he immediately appointed Zhong Mo and Li Deming as the principal and deputy envoys, and quickly brought the gift. Go north.
After Zhong and Li left for the north, Li Jing received two good news. One was from Ezhou, and Wuchang Jiedu envoy Liu Renfan reported that the invading Hunan bandit army was defeated in Changshan Village, and the bandit general Wang Kui was defeated. Annihilated three thousand enemy soldiers.
However, it was the previous period that Wang Kui, who was appointed as the Military Envoy of the Wuping Army by Liu Chengyou, was ordered to assist the Northern Han Dynasty in conquering the Tang Dynasty. He led 6,000 soldiers from Langzhou and entered Ezhou. He attacked Changshan Village of the Tang Dynasty and Liu Renfan led the attack. He was defeated, lost more than half of his troops, and fled back to Hunan in embarrassment. Since then, the two friendly armies that conquered the Southern Tang Dynasty, Wuyue and Hunan, were defeated by the Tang army one after another. Facts have proved that the "friendly armies" are of no use.
The second letter came from Li Hongji, King of Yan. General Yan Lin Renzhao led two thousand boatmen to raid the Han stronghold in Liyang, destroyed it, and killed more than a thousand enemies. There was no mention of battle losses, and the record seemed relatively poor, but This is the best record Tang Ting has received in recent times when facing the Han army.
A little green among thousands of flowers is particularly eye-catching. Of course, the one with the best record against the Han must belong to Guo Tingwei of Xuyi. Even He Jingzhu of Shouchun caused a lot of casualties to the Han army. No one said anything about it, and the news was not Difficult to pass on.
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Li Hongji, King of Yan of the Southern Tang Dynasty, who knew that the imperial court was pushing for peace talks, was still unwilling to accept it. He reported this matter to the imperial court, just to cheer up Li Jing and the Southern Tang imperial court. He told them that relying on Jiang Defense, they could still fight against the Han army. Arm wrestling.
The effect is naturally there, but the weight of such a victory is too small. In fact, after hearing the good news from both sides, Li Jing was happy for a small moment, just a small moment. After all, the trend is irreversible. Even Li Jing was still happy. He was worried that if Lin Renzhao fought this battle, he would anger the Han army and affect the peace talks.
However, despite the ups and downs of his emotions, Li Jing still issued an edict to praise Liu Renfan and Lin Renzhao, especially Lin Renzhao, who was directly selected as the defense envoy of Hezhou and the envoy of Jiangbei Camp.
Hefei, Liu Chengyou arrived here, and the Huainan camp moved here to supervise the Han troops nearby to attack the prefectures and counties along the Yangtze River. At the same time, Liu Chengyou sent out the cavalry, Fengguo, and Xiaodi armies to attack the three prefectures of Chuyang and Taizhou. The strength of the Han army was somewhat insufficient, and only more than 8,000 soldiers from the Fengchen camp and the Husheng camp were left in front of the emperor to protect them.
Hunan's report and the defeat of Liyang were also submitted to Liu Chengyou's desk at almost the same time. The report of the Liyang battle was also more detailed and more realistic. The Han army was attacked by Lin Renzhao, and 370 Han soldiers were killed. Second, the stronghold was destroyed, 1,500 stones of grain stored in it were burned, and thousands of stones were destroyed, and more than 400 Tang soldiers were killed in succession.
Zhang Yongde reported to Liu Chengyou, saying that he was negligent and lax, so the Tang army took advantage of him, and asked Liu Chengyou to admit his guilt. In this regard, Liu Chengyou ordered people to reprimand him, and at the same time told him that a small defeat would not matter, as long as he was vigilant. He also issued an edict, The encyclical issued to all the Han armies in Huainan, as the Tang armies still have more courage, and they must not underestimate the enemy's carelessness.
As for Wang Kui's defeat by Liu Renfan, Liu Chengyou ordered to reward Wang Kui with a hundred pieces of crossfire silk. At the same time, he only said that there would be changes in Hunan.
The current situation in Hunan is basically that the ten brothers Wang Kui and Zhou Xingfeng divide their power and control the military and political affairs. Wang Kui is the strongest, followed by Zhou Xingfeng. Now that Wang Kui has been defeated and lost three thousand troops, his strength is greatly reduced. "Brothers fighting against each other" is inevitable.
Of course, Liu Chengyou could not care about how the situation in Hunan would develop at this time. Or, he had no intention of caring about it. For example, it was tasteless and tasteless, so it would not be such a pity to abandon it temporarily...
"One thousand taels of gold, two thousand pieces of brocade silk, imperial clothes, rhinoceros belts, tea, some medicines, five hundred oxen for the army, and two thousand stones of wine!" In the city of Hefei, Li Fang said to Liu Chengyou, who was accompanying the Tang envoy Gift list from the north.
"This is the sincerity of suing for peace! It can be seen from this gift list that the Puppet Tang Dynasty was still wealthy, and its generosity was not small!" Liu Chengyou took the gift list, glanced at it, and said lightly: "Niu is going to Huaibei. Leave it to Wang Pu to deal with it, and give all the remaining gifts to the generals and commanders. In addition, we will send wine, meat and two thousand stones of wine to reward the officers and soldiers!"
"Yes!" Li Fang responded, and then asked Liu Chengyou for instructions: "When will your Majesty receive the Tang envoys Zhong Mo and Li Deming?"
Rolling his eyes, Liu Chengyou pointed up and said: "Let them hang out for a night, then take them to the military camp tomorrow morning and let them watch our Han army perform martial arts. Tell Li Chongjin to let him train for me and entertain the Tang envoys, and don't use them outside." In front of you, the majesty of our Han army has been reduced!"
Almost immediately understanding Liu Chengyou's intention, Li Fang chuckled and responded: "Yes!"