Now that he had chosen to surrender, Zhai Rang quickly found his position.
He persuaded: "My lord, although Li Mi controls Xingyang, I still have many loyal subordinates in Wagang. I think we should summon them as soon as possible to avoid being defeated by Li Mi one by one."
Li Yizhi shook his head and smiled, and said: "General Zhai, you have overlooked one point. In Li Mi's heart, you are already dead. If I hadn't taken action, General Zhai thinks who else in this world could have saved you?"
Zhai Rang shook his head and said even more gratefully: "Zhai Rang once again thanked the Duke for his life-saving grace."
Li Yizhi was speechless and said: "What I mean is that instead of you being exposed, it would be better for Li Mi to think that you are a dead person. Only in this way will he unscrupulously eliminate dissidents and consolidate his position. As for your subordinates, even if
If he wants to clean things up, he will do so after the situation is stable, so as not to gain a reputation as unkind or even cause chaos among the Wagang army."
Li Mi was a man who aspired to the world, so naturally he cherished feathers very much.
Now that Zhai Rang is dead, Zhai Rang's old troops will naturally not be able to make any big waves.
After all, they are all the strength of Wagang Village. As long as Zhai Rang's old subordinates don't go against him, Li Mi will never kill them all. At most, they will suppress their promotion or gradually sideline them.
Zhai Rang nodded, feeling that Li Yizhi's words made sense.
Li Yizhi continued: "In this case, our opportunity will come. Only when Li Mi is relieved will he take vigorous action to eliminate dissidents and promote his cronies, so as to control the Wagang Army as quickly as possible. But as far as I know
, people like Qin Shubao, Luo Shixin, Cheng Yaojin and others, although they are good at fighting, are not your confidants. Do you think Li Mi will continue to let them be in power?"
Zhai Rang shook his head and said: "Absolutely not. Li Mi seems to be benevolent and righteous, but in fact he is the most vicious; he seems to be generous, but in fact he is the most petty."
Li Yizhi chuckled and said: "Li Mi wants to consolidate his power. If he excludes dissidents, it is tantamount to abolishing his martial arts. We will take the opportunity to recruit these people to increase our strength. For those of your old troops, you can secretly write to them in handwriting,
Let them make peace with Li Mi, lest they really surrender to Li Mi."
Zhai Rang nodded quickly, knowing it very well in his heart.
If he really died, then at least half of his old troops would choose to join Li Mi.
Li Yizhi said: "The things here will be left to you next. Try to win over all the excluded talents. I will return to Jiangdu in a moment and mobilize the army to go north. At that time, you can summon the old troops and join me in Qiao County.
Reunion."
Qiaojun is today's Bozhou, and four to five hundred miles to the northwest is Xingyang, which is close to Zhengzhou.
If Li Yizhi and Zhai Rang could join forces here, they could basically divide more than one-third of the original Wagang territory.
Zhai Rang agreed, and then the two separated.
A few days after Li Yizhi left, Zhai Rang quickly reunited with Tu Shufang, who had escaped, and Zhai Jiao, who had not yet left.
In order to make Li Mi believe that he was dead, Zhai Rang asked Zhai Jiao to act out a scene with him. He found someone who looked similar to him and buried her with a mourning cloth on her head.
After Li Mi got the news, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Now that Zhai Rang is dead, he has no worries at all.
In order to prepare to move north to seize absolute military power before Li Yizhi was in Pingdi Jiangnan, Li Mi used very direct means to dismiss Qin Shubao, Luo Shixin, Cheng Yaojin, Shan Xiongxin and other generals.
Of course, this does not mean that they will not be used completely. After all, Li Mi is not that stupid yet. He just transfers them to the rear to train soldiers, and then let them go to war when there is a big war.
Originally, because of the seizure of power, Qin Shubao and others felt that Li Mi was not loyal enough. Now that the other party had removed them from military power, they were even more determined to leave.
It just so happened that Zhai Rang had someone secretly find them. After learning that Zhai Rang was still alive and had taken refuge with Li Yizhi, they agreed almost without thinking and decided to take refuge with Li Yizhi.
What surprised Li Yizhi was that not only did he recruit so many famous historical generals, but also because Qin Shubao and others were extremely prestigious in the army. As long as they raised their arms, they could kill the generals who replaced them and take away the army.
.
…………
Li Yizhi hurried all the way, and finally rushed back to Yangzhou on the morning of the third day, and then summoned Tian Wen and others.
As for Wang Tong, he is still on the way.
Li Yizhi asked: "Have you been okay both inside and outside the court during the more than half a month I left?"
Tian Wenhui reported: "Every aspect is proceeding step by step. Yesterday we received a report from General Li, saying that the Liang Kingdom has been basically pacified. He is now establishing Zhechong Prefectures in various places to stabilize the country in accordance with the military system you formulated previously.
Place. As for General Luo, he just defeated Zhu Jie some time ago and is currently pursuing him. I believe that there will be another good news soon."
Li Yizhi was overjoyed and said: "This is very good, so we can also mobilize our troops to go north."
Tian Wen asked happily: "Have you rescued Zhai Rang?"
Li Yizhi nodded and said: "Yes, now he is secretly summoning his old troops. I am going to lead the army north, attack them from both inside and outside, and meet up at Qiaojun to drive a nail in the north. In this way, Mr. Tian, you will pass on Feige later
Write to General Li to see how many troops and horses he can mobilize and transfer them back to Jiangdu as soon as possible. I will be of great use."
"good!"
Tian Wen nodded.
Next, Li Yizhi inquired about the situation in all aspects of the court and found that there were no major problems and everything was running according to the system he had set.
The only thing that needs attention is the cooperation with Dongming Sect.
However, this matter cannot be urgent. The arsenal will not be put into production for two to three months.
Four days later, Li Yizhi received a reply from Li Jing, saying that 100,000 troops and horses had been mobilized and transferred back to Jiangdu.
As for Li Jing himself, he still needs to stay in the south of the Yangtze River and is temporarily unable to go north.
The army was marching at such a speed that it was naturally impossible to reach there quickly. If Li Yizhi wanted to lead his army north, he would have to wait at least half a month.
However, plans cannot keep up with changes.
On the fifth day, Li Yizhi received a letter from Zhai Rang.
Zhai Rang said in the letter that he had recruited Qin Shubao and others, and that they would take away their respective subordinates at any time, which totaled nearly 50,000.
If his own old troops are also included, there are more than 100,000 people, accounting for more than one-third of Wagang's troops.
Li Yizhi was overjoyed, this was really an unexpected surprise.
It would be a long night and many dreams, and he now had no time to wait for a hundred thousand troops. Li Yizhi was going to lead the garrison on the Huaihe River north, about thirty thousand men.
At the same time, his current target is no longer just Qiaojun, but Xuchang.
Xuchang is located about a hundred miles south of Xingyang, and its location is extremely important. After he and Zhai Rang joined forces, the 100,000 troops transferred back from Jiangnan had almost arrived.
By then, more than 200,000 troops will be gathered in Xuchangtun, and they can go north at any time to destroy Li Mi in one fell swoop.