Chapter 546: The Ambition General

Xu Shuji is different from Dong Qin in Hedong and Ji Guangchen in Luoyang. He was a civil servant. He was formerly the prefect of Huazhou. When Li Heng was the crown prince of the East Palace, he was the doctor of Youshanzan of the East Palace. He had close contact with Zuo Shanzan of the Doctor Du Youlin. After the Du Youlin case broke out, the official of the East Palace was cleansed by Li Linfu. Xu Shuji was spared for bribing Wang Gong heavily and was demoted to the magistrate of Lingchang County. However, Xu Shuji left a way out for himself at this time, and he quietly hid Du Liangdi for Li Heng.

As time went by, Xu Shuji, who was good at camp, was promoted to the prefect of Huazhou. At this time, Li Heng forced himself to ascend the throne to the emperor and was despised by all officials and counties in the world. However, Xu Shuji saw unlimited business opportunities. He was the first local prefect to publicly express his support for Li Heng, and thus gained Li Heng's trust, appointed him as the governor of Huapu, and gave him 30,000 troops as the foundation for his development, and ordered him to defend the gateway of Henan Road and defend against the southern invasion of An Lushan.

But Xu Shuji, who got the opportunity, began to expand his ambition. On the one hand, he wrote a letter to Li Heng, An Lushan was very powerful, and it was difficult to defend with only 30,000 troops. On the other hand, he crossed the border without authorization and took advantage of the emptiness of the Central Plains to occupy the five prefectures of Bian, Cao, Song, Yan, and Xu, and quickly expanded the army from 30,000 to 70,000.

Although Li Heng was dissatisfied with Xu Shuji's arbitrary actions at this time, he had no choice but to acquiesce to Xu Shuji's expansion and change his Gupu Jiedushi to Gupu Bian and Xu Qizhou Jiedushi, making his expansion legal.

But once a person's ambition is out of control, it will expand forever. Li Heng acquiesced Xu Shuji to occupy the seven states, but Xu Shuji's ambitions ran farther. His ambitions enveloped the eight states such as Yun, Ji, Qi, Zibo, Mi, Hai, Yi, Qing, etc. It's a pity that his military and financial resources were insufficient, which made it difficult for him to expand for a while. Just when he was about to increase taxes and recruit troops, news suddenly came from Chang'an that Li Qing'an personally led his army to the east.

The news was like a sharp awl, which suddenly exposes Xu Shuji's swelling ambition bubble, and he begins to panic.

The heavy rain swept across the Central Plains also affected Bianzhou and Huazhou. A team of cavalry ran in the heavy rain. Xu Shuji was rushing back to Huazhou. Currently, Xu Shuji's base camp is in Bianzhou. But yesterday morning he received news that An Lushan's special envoy had arrived in Huazhou, which made Xu Shuji rush back to Huazhou impatiently.

In the rain and fog, Xu Shuji slowed down his horse speed. He wiped the rain all over his face and looked into the distance. Xu Shuji is about fifty years old this year and is thin. A long horse face has a tiny and eagle-girl nose, giving people a sense of insidiousness and cunningness.

In the heavy rain, he had already vaguely seen the An Lushan special envoy who came from Hebei, waiting for him in the county town.

"Driving!" Xu Shuji whipped his war horse hard, and the carriage rushed into the rain and fog, and rushed towards the Lingchang County town in the distance.

Half an hour later, Xu Shuji had already changed into a clean robe, holding a cup of hot tea in his hand, and sat in the inner room of the county government to sip tea carefully. His personal soldiers had already gone to pick up An Lushan's special envoy.

"Report to the envoy, the special envoy has arrived!"

The personal soldiers heard the report from the door, which scared Xu Shuji so much that he stood up quickly. The tea in his hand almost spilled out. He quickly calmed down, put the teacup on the table, tidied up his clothes, and quickly opened the door.

At the door, two personal soldiers accompanied a tall and fat middle-aged man standing in front of him. Xu Shuji knew this person and was one of An Lushan's confidant counselors, Zhang Tongru.

Xu Shuji immediately smiled enthusiastically and said, "It turns out it is Mr. Zhang. I haven't seen him for a few years. Mr. Zhang's style is better than the past."

Zhang Tongru is the chief leader of An Lushan's intelligence system. He was sent by An Lushan to Huazhou two days ago. The heavy rain wet the hem of his robe, but it was difficult to cover up the arrogant expression on his face.

"Well! You're welcome! Xu Jun, I'm short of time, let's talk about the important matter as soon as possible!"

Xu Shuji's enthusiasm was gone, he laughed dryly and said quickly: "Please! Mr. Zhang, please come in."

Zhang Tongru walked into the room with his hands behind his back, glanced out of the corner of his eyes, and saw that the two personal soldiers were about to follow up, so he said, "Eunuch Xu, we don't need a third party to be present in our conversation."

Xu Shuji glanced at his personal soldiers and felt a little embarrassed: "They are all my personal soldiers, so there is absolutely no problem."

Zhang Tongru stretched his face and emphasized again: "I'll say it again, our conversation does not require a third party to be present."

Xu Shuji cursed in his heart, but he had no choice but to wave to his personal soldiers and said, "You all retreat!"

The personal soldiers retreated, and closed the door, poured a cup of hot tea in person, brought it to Zhang Tongru and smiled, "Mr. Zhang first drank a cup of hot tea to get rid of the cold air. It was only July, and the autumn was already full of autumn."

Zhang Tongru took the teacup, his arrogance on his face slightly restrained, and said, "It has suddenly rained heavily in the past two days. Xu Jun came from Bianzhou. It must be difficult to walk on the road!"

"Yes! Yes! The road is muddy and it is really difficult to walk. I have been on Henan Road for many years. This kind of heavy rain is rare. Perhaps God is favoring me and stopping Li Qing'an from entering east, haha!"

"Is Xu Jun afraid of Li Qing'an?" Zhang Tongru stared at Xu Shuji with sharp eyes.

Xu Shuji was speechless for a while, but he didn't know how to explain. Of course, he was afraid of Li Qing'an, not afraid of what he asked An Lushan to do. Isn't An Lushan also afraid?

Although he thought so in his heart, he didn't dare to say it, so he could only sigh and said, "I just got the news, Ji Guangchen has been wiped out."

"What!" Zhang Tongru was shocked. Has Ji Guangchen's entire army been wiped out? He was unaware of it. He did not notify him of his eyeliner in Xingyang and Ji Guangchen's army. Zhang Tongru changed his mind and suddenly understood that he should notify him, but notified Youzhou, and An Lushan should know.

When Ji Guangchen was destroyed, Zhang Tongru became alert. According to their analysis, Li Qing'an should deal with Xu Shuji first, and then turn around and eat Ji Guangchen. But now Ji Guangchen has been destroyed first. It seems that they have underestimated Li Qing'an's determination and their plans must be accelerated. Thinking of this, Zhang Tongru said to Xu Shuji: "The King of Yan means that your army should be concentrated on the front line of Huazhou, not be too dispersed, but should speed up the war and be prepared to welcome the war."

Xu Shuji was stunned. He had already vaguely heard the meaning of dealing with him. Was he going to let him be used as bait? He was anxious and said with a stuttering voice: "Where is the army of the King of Yan? Haven't you agreed to me to attack Zhengzhou?"

"Don't worry!"

Zhang Tongru stood up and patted his thin shoulders, and said with a smile: "Since you are willing to surrender to the King of Yan, that is our Fan Yang army. How could the King of Yan ignore you? The King of Yan's plan remains unchanged. When Li Qing'an's army attacks Huazhou, we will cross the river and march into Zhengzhou, attack Luoyang with the strategy of surrounding Wei to save Zhao, forcing Li Qing'an to retreat in the west, and then our two armies will attack together, and this time we will wipe out the Anxi army!"

Xu Shuji pondered for a moment, but now he had no choice but to say, "Okay! I'll call the army now."

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

In Heyin County, in the vast rain between heaven and earth, the Yellow River roared and rushed, and the sound was like mountains collapsed and the earth was broken. Li Qing'an stood on the bank of the Yellow River. The Yellow River seized the power of heaven and earth, and the rapids were surging, which made him feel moved.

Li Qing'an once went to the source of the Yellow River. The trickle of flowing through thousands of miles. With its vast mind and broad mind, it finally formed the vast river today.

‘Don’t you see that the water of the Yellow River comes from the sky, flows to the sea and never returns again!’

Li Qingan was shaken by the mother's river in front of him and sighed that a sense of broadness and vastness that had never been seen before was surging in his heart.

At this time, an umbrella covered his head, and Li Guangbi slowly walked to him and stared at the other side of the river covered by rain and fog. He said in a low voice: "Just just got the news that An Lushan's 80,000 troops had passed Xiangzhou in the name of training and was driving towards the Yellow River."

"As we expected, An Lushan is not willing to be lonely!" A faint smile surged on the corner of Li Qing'an's mouth. He had long guessed that the situation in the Central Plains would not be so calm. Xu Shuji might have surrendered to An Lushan secretly, or he admitted that the pseudo-emperor established by An Lushan.

"General, then do we still want to march towards Huazhou as planned?"

Li Qing'an pondered for a moment, then asked, "How is Ji Guangchen's army now being incorporated?"

"It's very good. Remove some injuries and old and weak. We have already obtained 24,000 young and strong. All the middle-level officers in the army have been replaced by the Anxi Army and can fight."

"Okay! Get more training and let them be reborn within one month!"

"Don't they need to do this battle?" Li Guangbi asked in surprise.

Li Qingan shook his head gently, staring into the depths of the Yellow River and slowly said, "If it were you, how would you fight this battle?"

Li Guangbi had already thought about it repeatedly and said, "If my judgment is correct, An Lushan hopes that we will attack Huazhou, and then he crosses the river and cuts off our retreat. Perhaps he will attack Luoyang and force us to retreat. When we retreat in a hurry, An Lushan's army will attack Xu Shuji's army from front and back. It is precisely for this possibility that I will send out a surprise troops and ask Ji Guangchen's surrendered army to pretend to be the main force to march into Huazhou, and surround it without fighting. When An Lushan's army crosses the river, our main force will suddenly attack and intercept it halfway, causing them to be defeated in the Yellow River."

Li Qingan smiled faintly and said, "Your judgment is not wrong. It should be like this. The countermeasures are also very vicious. An Lushan's army will definitely be defeated, but I still don't plan to adopt it."

"Why?" Li Guangbi said in shock.

"It's very simple. This battle cannot only plan for one area, but the overall situation."

At this time, Li Qing'an turned around and looked at Hedong. Xu Shuji was a clown, not to worry about it. He needed this stalemate to fly for another half a year.

He pondered for a while and said to Li Guangbi: "You lead 20,000 troops into Bianzhou first. If I am not wrong, there will be no troops in Bianzhou at this time!"

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．
Chapter completed!