Hong Yuetian has always been on good terms with the eldest son Xiao Ting. He believes that Xiao Ting should inherit the throne of Sichuan Kingdom. After all, he is the eldest son and it is only natural that he should inherit the throne.
Without the permission of the imperial court, Hong Yuetian made the decision without authorization, left the fiefdom, led the Hong family army back to Zhaoyang, the capital of Sichuan, and stationed the army outside Zhaoyang City.
The Hong Family Army is the largest family army, with a total strength of 150,000. The entire army is made up of regular army preparations, and its combat power is extremely strong. It is no worse than the Central Army, or even better.
Hong Yuetian led his army back to the capital, which made the ministers and generals who supported Xiao Xiang nervous. As the saying goes, those who come are not good, and those who are good will not come. Hong Yuetian's grandiose return to the capital must have some agenda.
Not long after the Hong family army arrived in Zhaoyang, a total of twelve other princes, including Changshan Hou Xiao Yi, Wu Guan Hou Xiao Yong, Chishan Hou Dou Zhong, Qingyun Hou Liu Zhen, etc., successively led their respective family armies to Zhaoyang. For a time, almost everyone outside Zhaoyang City was
The army, the family army and the central army were intertwined and mixed together.
The princes all have their own spheres of influence, and they all have large-scale family armies under their command. Who will inherit the throne is closely related to their immediate interests. If the prince or princess who ascends to the throne is someone who dislikes him, then it will be a problem.
Something bad has happened, so now that the battle for the throne is in full swing, they all want to get involved and push the prince or princess they are friends with to come to power.
The princes returned to the capital one after another with unclear intentions. Four generals, Zhang Situ, Yang Zhao, Lu You, and Buying, came to Xiao Xiang's princess mansion to discuss countermeasures with her.
Currently, the Sichuan Central Army under the control of the four generals Zhang Situ, Yang Zhao, Lu You, and Buying includes the first, third, fourth, sixth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth, a total of eight
There are three legions, and the ninth and eleventh legions are far away in Zhenxi and are basically useless. The ones that can be directly deployed are the first, third, fourth, sixth, tenth, and twelfth legions.
A legion.
There are also 2nd, 5th, 7th, 8th, 13th, and 14th legions near Zhaoyang. In addition, there are now more family armies of thirteen princes including Hong Yuetian.
, there are hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in total, and the situation is becoming more and more complicated.
When discussing countermeasures, Zhang Situ first spoke: "Hong Yuetian has always been on good terms with the eldest son. This time he returned to the capital without authorization, it must be to support the eldest son. In addition, there are many other twelve princes.
Few people support the eldest young master and the second young master, and now that the eldest young master and the second young master are united, the situation is not optimistic for us!"
Listening to his analysis, everyone frowned and nodded, thinking that his analysis was reasonable. If all the princes did not participate, they could also use their prestige in the military to forcibly elect Xiao Xiang to the throne, and now the princes have returned
They all led their respective family armies to rush over with murderous intent. It has become impossible for them to forcefully recommend Xiao Xiang against all opinions.
Buying looked around at everyone and suddenly said: "The battle for the throne has reached a life-or-death situation. If the princess can successfully ascend to the throne, you and I will be safe and sound. If the princess fails, no matter whether the eldest son or the second son succeeds, we will be safe."
Not only is it difficult for the imperial court to have a foothold for us, but it is also unclear whether our heads can be saved. Now, it can be said that we are standing in the same boat as the princess. We can only work together and there is no way out.
You can go!"
The more Yang Zhao listened, the more he felt that there was something in Buying's words. He asked, "What does General Bu mean by this?"
"What I mean is that if the princess is prosperous, we will be prosperous. If the princess is weak, we will be prosperous. Now, we must try our best to assist the princess. If we hide our selfish motives, look forward and backward, and be duplicitous, we will only suffer the consequences in the end!
"Buying said in a deep voice.
Bang! Yang Zhao flew into a rage, and he stood up and shouted angrily: "Are you implying that we have evil intentions and are disloyal to the princess?"
Buying said sternly: "I'm just kindly reminding you, I have no other intention!"
"You are obviously making insinuations..." Yang Zhao was so angry that his beard stood up high and his eyes widened. He almost rolled up his arms and sleeves and rushed over to fight with Buying.
Seeing this, Xiao Xiang, who had been silent all the time, waved his hands to the two of them and persuaded them: "Okay, General Bu and General Yang, the situation is tense now. If something goes wrong, it will lead to a war. We are internally talking about it."
Don’t cause any more chaos.”
After hearing Xiao Xiang's words, Yang Zhao suppressed his anger, glared at Bu Ying again, and sat back angrily.
Xiao Xiang looked around at everyone and asked: "The princes are leading their family armies back to the capital one after another. Do you generals have any good strategies?"
Zhang Situ said worriedly: "What the general is most afraid of is that the family armies join forces and become enemies of the princess. If this happens..." He did not say any more, but shook his head repeatedly.
Each of the thirteen princes has tens of thousands of family armies, especially the Hong family army, which has 150,000 soldiers and horses. If so many armies are united in one place, they can compete with the central army.
To counterbalance, what's more, the four of them have not yet mastered the entire Central Army.
"General Zhang is right!" Lu You said slowly: "There are two keys now. First, we cannot let the princes unite. Second, we must win over the two people immediately."
Xiao Xiang's heart moved and she asked: "Who are the two people General Lu is talking about?"
Lu You said seriously: "One is Wei Heng, and the other is Ren Fang."
Wei Heng and Ren Fang are both generals. Wei Heng is an old noble of the Sichuan Kingdom. For hundreds of years, the Wei family has provided the Sichuan Kingdom with batches of generals and talents, and their descendants are blood-stained on the battlefield and wrapped in horse leather.
There are countless of them. It can be said that the entire family has made great contributions to the Sichuan Army. Wei Heng has a high reputation among the Sichuan Army. Even if he cannot answer a hundred calls, it is not far behind. Moreover, he directly controls the most powerful military force in the Sichuan Army.
of the Second Corps.
As for Ren Fang, he was even more famous. When the Four Kingdoms were fighting against the wind, Ren Fang served as the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces and was one of the representatives of the new aristocracy of Sichuan. Xiao Xuan also trusted Ren Fang very much during his lifetime and led the three central armies.
The command of the legion was given to him alone. Xiao Xuan dared to leave the capital to expedition to Shenchi because he was allowed to sit in Zhaoyang.
It's just that since Xiao Xuan's death, the attitudes of Wei Heng and Ren Fang have been unclear, and they have not clearly expressed who they support or do not support.
As usual, Wei Heng lived in seclusion. Even if any young master or princess came to visit, he would always say that he was ill. Xiao Ting, Xiao Yuan and even Xiao Xiang had all been rejected by him.
As for Ren Fang, he did it more simply. After Xiao Xuan died of illness, he moved directly to the military camp outside the city, away from the big quagmire of Zhaoyang. It can also be seen from this that Ren Fang is a smart man, and he also deeply understands the importance of protecting oneself wisely.
road.
The actions of Wei Heng and Ren Fang made it clear that they did not want to participate in the struggle for the throne between the prince and the princess. No matter who would inherit the throne, they would have no objection.
If the princes did not return to the capital, Xiao Xiang and his group could not be so anxious to win over Wei Heng and let such a centrist faction go, but now they have to be anxious. Without the support of these two people, they may not be able to win the game with the princes.
can gain the upper hand.
After hearing what Lu You said, Xiao Xiang was a little discouraged and didn't say anything for a long time. After a while, she sighed softly and said: "I have worked hard before, and I also personally visited General Wei and General Ren.
However, General Wei stayed behind closed doors, and although General Ren met with me, he did not express his support for me. Now if we try to win over the two of them, I'm afraid... it will be difficult to succeed!"
Lu You said: "General Wei can be persuaded by the junior general. As for General Ren, the junior general is not sure of persuading him, so he can only bother the princess and go there in person."
Xiao Xiang didn't mind going to the military camp outside the city, but she was worried that her trip would be in vain. She thought for a moment and asked curiously: "General Lu, are you confident that you can convince General Wei?"
Lu You smiled slightly and said: "Although the old general doesn't care who inherits the throne, the old general's loyalty to our country of Sichuan will never change. Now the princes are disobeying the court's orders and returning to the capital without authorization, which has committed an act of disobedience."
If we don't let this go, we only need to persuade the old general to punish the princes, and the old general will naturally be on our side."
Xiao Xiang nodded repeatedly after hearing this, secretly praising Lu You for his intelligence and cleverness, and finding this entry point just right! She smiled brightly and said, "I can also follow General Lu's example and use the same reason to persuade General Ren."
The smile on Lu You's face turned into a bitter smile. He was confident that he could convince Wei Heng with this, but he was not confident that he could convince Ren Fang. It wasn't that Ren Fang lacked loyalty to Sichuan, but that he simply couldn't see it.
Even if you let this person go, you can't guess what he is thinking.
He hesitated to speak and looked at Xiao Xiang, and finally swallowed the words that were on his lips and whispered: "Try it, maybe the princess can really convince Ren Fang!"
Xiao Xiang accepted Lu You's suggestion and went out of the city again to find Ren Fang at the Sichuan Army garrison outside the city, trying to persuade him to side with him.
She could think of wooing Ren Fang, how could Xiao Ting and Xiao Yuan not think of it? But just like Xiao Xiang's result, Xiao Ting and Xiao Yuan also failed.
Ren Fang is currently living in the military camp of the Fifth Army. The Fifth Army's station is located in the north of Zhaoyang, dozens of miles away. There is a vast plain area. Looking around, there are patches of farmland. That is
The field of the Fifth Army Corps.
There are people who are born to be commanders. Ren Fang is such a person. He knows very well the importance of food and grass to the legion. The fifth, seventh and eighth legions under his control are the best. These three
Each legion not only does not need to ask for food and grass from the court every year, but can also turn over food and grass to the court. Even so, the three legions' granaries are fully stocked. As long as there is a war, these three legions do not need to do anything.
With early preparation, troops can be dispatched to fight immediately.