After Li Tai heard this, he couldn't believe his ears for a while. This situation was really beyond his expectation.
Although there was a brief period of peace between the two countries during the War Strike Covenant before, the background at that time was still different from the current one. And precisely because of the experience of the previous covenant that was in name only, it further proved that the relationship between East and West
It would be nonsense to stop the war unless either side is completely supported.
Today's Northern Qi has suffered real losses in territory and population. It does not expect to negotiate peace in exchange for the lost city land and the troops blocked in Yiyang. This time, the only way to recover the losses is through
fighting.
To regain the ground through negotiation is neither in line with the intelligence level of normal people nor in line with Northern Qi's always unruly style. Unless negotiations are initiated, a mutual strike is a goal that Northern Qi needs to achieve, and for this reason, they can even admit it willingly
The damage has already been done.
The signal for peace was sent by Northern Qi's scouts, indicating that if Western Wei was willing to negotiate peace, Northern Qi would send envoys to discuss the details of peace talks and a ceasefire in the near future.
Regarding this relatively abnormal situation, Li Tai guessed that there are two possibilities.
The first is that the Northern Qi Dynasty deliberately tested and delayed, to test whether the Western Wei Dynasty was still determined to continue to advance to expand its results, and to delay the pace of the Wei army's subsequent military operations through negotiations, thereby gaining more time to raise forces and prepare for counterattacks. Such as now
The Qi army that has already entered the Qinshui Valley can strengthen the blockade of the Qinshui Valley while negotiations continue.
The second possibility is that some important personnel changes may have occurred or are about to occur in the Northern Qi Kingdom. It is necessary to ensure relative external stability so as to concentrate on dealing with internal conflicts and problems. Could it be that the leader of Qi, Gao Yang, died?
The possibility of both scenarios is very high, and without more information being revealed to allow for more accurate guesses and judgments, Li Tai is not sure which one it is.
Therefore, his approach was to simply ignore it. No matter what the Qi army's situation and intentions were, it always required feedback from the Wei army before it could be used. The more the enemy wanted, the more it would do the opposite.
It's always right.
Therefore, Li Tai simply pretended that there was no such thing. Things such as the rest of the troops and the dispatch of additional scouts were all as usual, and no other adjustments were made.
Wei Jun has not given any feedback here, and Duan Shao is a little uneasy. On the one hand, he really needs to reach a certain tacit understanding with the Western Wei Dynasty as soon as possible to stop the war, so as to slightly free up the troops under his command. On the other hand, this time
It was his own initiative to seek peace, and not at the behest of the emperor or anyone else.
Although Duan Shao made such a decision based on the overall situation, after all, the current Northern Qi Dynasty really cannot withstand the double torment of internal and external troubles, but it cannot be said to be completely selfless.
From Duan Shao's own consideration, his motivation for doing this is about seven parts public and three parts selfish. On the whole, of course, he hopes that the country's destiny will be stable and good, and what kind of personnel waves will be caused in the country?
Under the circumstances, he also hopes to strive to put himself in a relatively safe and stable position.
However, if this request for peace fails, Duan Shao will not only have to withstand the strong pressure from the Western Wei army to continue to attack externally, but also may have to face the investigation and questioning of the emperor and some ministers of the DPRK internally, and the situation will become difficult.
.
Originally, in Duan Shao's opinion, the Wei army's retreat was harassed by Hu Luguang's troops, and they should have wanted to retreat. Moreover, the long delay after the battle at Tongdan River also reflected the Wei army's inability to advance. In such a situation
Under such circumstances, it would be normal for one side to take the initiative to show weakness, and for the other side to accept the situation and then discuss the details of the terms with each other.
But now the enemy looks confident, fighting but not fighting, retreating but not retreating, and not responding to the olive branch he has extended. This can't help but give Duan Shao a headache.
After weighing it up, he decided to add another 3,000 troops to Hu Luguang to strengthen the pressure on the Wei army in the Qinshui River Valley. At the same time, he also continued to send trusted scouts to send a signal for peace to the Western Wei, hoping that the Western Wei could give it as soon as possible.
respond.
He is not worried that his overly eager expression may reveal the current internal instability of the Qi State. The biggest unstable factor in the Qi State today is the leader of Qi, Gao Yang, whose mental and physical conditions are very worrying.
But this is also a highly confidential matter in Qi State, and only a few people can know it. Others only know that the emperor's behavior is somewhat absurd and cruel, and they would not easily think that the emperor in his prime is already suffering from illness. Li Boshan
Of course, the leader of the enemy country cannot fully understand the emperor's health. As his consumption gradually increases and there is not much room for advancement, he will eventually agree to negotiate peace.
However, Duan Shao's thinking can only be established for normal people, but it does not include some bad guys. Not only did Li Taifei know that Gao Yang was in poor health, he even listed it as Qi Jun's eagerness to seek peace from the beginning.
An important reason and possibility for soldiers.
As Duan Shao became more and more anxious, Li Tai became more and more certain that there must be a big thunder inside Northern Qi that was about to explode. Because if it was just a test, a lot of information could have been tested once before, and there was no need to do it again and again.
And three's happen frequently.
After having more speculations, Li Tai also became a little interested in peace talks. So he sent a signal to the opposite side for the first time through the scouts in front. Peace talks were possible, but the Qi army that had entered the Qinshui Valley needed to evacuate Qinshui.
, and returned to Guo Yan the bodies of Yun Bao and other soldiers who died in the battle. Only if these two things are accomplished first, will the Wei army consider starting negotiations with each other.
After receiving the response from Wei Jun, Duan Shao felt mixed. Although Wei Jun gave a response, the conditions set out by Wei Jun were not very easy to fulfill, especially the withdrawal of Hu Luguang's troops, which was really a bit difficult.
Difficult to handle.
Although Hu Luguang is Duan Shao's subordinate now, he has a strong and stubborn personality and usually sticks to what he has decided. This time he finally took advantage of the opportunity and inserted himself into the enemy's retreat, hoping to make him retreat obediently.
Undoubtedly, it is difficult. He really dares to disobey orders. If Duan Shao persists, they may fall out, making it difficult to proceed with the peace talks before they even begin.
Moreover, Hu Luguang was currently in one of the few situations where the Qi army could counterattack the Wei army. It was difficult for Duan Shao to accept that he gave up his biggest trump card before the peace talks had even begun.
However, Duan Shao was not willing to end the conversation that had finally started without talking about the substantive issues. So he avoided the difficult issues first, did the easy ones first, and established a
The tacit basis of the dialogue was that the corpses of the Wei army's dead soldiers could be returned, but the Wei army would need to exchange prisoners such as Wei Can.
Even if Li Tai agreed after receiving this condition, he really had no intention of wasting food to continue to feed people like Wei Can. Returning to Northern Qi might allow Northern Qi nobles to interfere in politics, and the corruption of officialdom would be aggravated.
After the two parties reached this consensus, they quickly agreed on the location of the exchange, and successfully completed this round of transactions shortly thereafter. After receiving the bones of the soldiers who died in the battle, Li Tai immediately ordered them to be temporarily buried.
They got up and were transported back to Guanzhong for burial when the army returned in triumph.
The Northern Qi Dynasty exchanged dead bodies for living people, which at least seemed to make a lot of money. When Wei Can arrived at the Xiahu Ju camp and saw Duan Shao, he hugged Duan Shao's arm and burst into tears: "This time the Qiang were killed.
I was kidnapped by thieves, and I thought that I would have to live in a foreign country from then on, and would never return until I died... Thanks to my dear brother, I will never forget your kindness... It's just that when the city was destroyed, most of my family property was taken by Qiang thieves.
,Brother Xiaoxian, can you..."
Duan Shao couldn't help but snorted after hearing this. If Sima Xiaonan's surrender to the enemy was the trigger for this war, then Wei Can's dereliction of duty as the governor of Jinzhou was the first big thunder, which triggered a subsequent series of events.
A series of changes for the worse.
Exchanging this guy back was just a gimmick, but he didn't expect that he would still persist in his stubbornness after experiencing this disaster. The surrender of such a huge Jinzhou to thieves did not make him feel ashamed. Even after he was out of danger, he still couldn't forget his family assets.
Floating money is really disgusting!
After completing the first exchange, although the two sides still had not reached an agreement to stop the war, the atmosphere between them was no longer as tense as before. However, when the Western Wei Dynasty brought up the old matter again, they urged Duan Shao to continue to fulfill another obligation.
Duan Shao couldn't help but feel a little headache when meeting certain conditions.
He had not yet figured out how to properly deal with this matter. Another news came from the country, adding another fire to his already anxious mood: after arriving in Liaoyang, the emperor sent another message to Ye
In the capital, Gao Yan, the king of Changshan, and Gao Zhan, the king of Changguang, were summoned to meet him in Liaoyang.
After hearing the news, Duan Shaodang couldn't help but feel a cold sweat pouring down his back even as he thought of asking himself questions about heirs before.
Originally, the emperor announced that he would return to Jinyang to take charge, but he diverted directly to Liaoyang on the way. After arriving in Liaoyang, he summoned two direct brothers to meet in Liaoyang. This series of connections is really difficult to make people feel good about it.
The association always gives people a sense of danger that a storm is coming.
Duan Shao couldn't guess what the emperor was going to do, or he didn't dare to guess. But he knew that if even his direct siblings like the two kings were in trouble, then his current position could not be said to be absolutely safe either.
.
Therefore, whether it is for the country or for oneself, it is most important to have enough emergency response power at the moment. This incident has further strengthened Duan Shao's idea of stopping the war with the Western Wei Dynasty, and the sooner the better, if the country is in chaos
Once the clues are gradually revealed and known to the enemy, the situation will become even more difficult to handle.
So Duan Shao immediately sent his eldest son Duan Yi to the Qinshui Valley, handed his handwritten letter to Hu Luguang and called him back to discuss matters. As for the division and brigade in the Qinshui Valley, his son was temporarily in charge.