In Chen Cheng's view, even if there is a war, it is normal to send envoys to each other. But Yan Zhong did not see it that way. He said to Chen Cheng: "Han Sui has always been good at conspiracy. I'm afraid he sent people here just to paralyze him.
Ma Shoucheng. Maybe Han Wenyue's army has already crossed Liupan Mountain."
"Then what if Han Sui doesn't send someone?"
"If Han Sui doesn't send anyone, it means he has made up his mind to start a war!"
Chen Cheng laughed dumbly and said, "So, whether Han Sui sends people or not, it means he is going to start a war?"
Yan Zhong said matter-of-factly: "Exactly! Han Sui is nicknamed the Nine Bends of the Yellow River. The twists and turns in his belly are ten times or a hundred times that of others. To deal with him, you have to sleep with one eye open."
When he saw Yan Xingxing coming in, he asked Yan Xingdao: "Yan Ming, tell me, why did Han Sui send people to Pengyang?"
Yan Xing was silent for a while and said, "I'm afraid we are going to send troops."
"..." Chen Cheng shook his head and said: "Even if Han Sui had no intention of fighting, he would still have to fight because of your malicious speculation. Many things are caused by misunderstandings.
Wouldn't it be better to let things go and talk about it? If we are so suspicious of each other, we will cause trouble even if it doesn't matter."
Yan Zhong said: "Of course you can be honest with a gentleman like Junhou, but for an old fox like Han Wenyue, you'd better tighten the fence and prepare the bow, arrow, knife and gun."
Chen Cheng chuckled and stopped talking about the topic. He pointed at Yan Xing and said to Zhao Yun: "Zilong, this Yan Xing and Yan Yanming are heroes in Liangzhou. Bo Dao praised him as one of the best talents in Liangzhou."
Then, he pulled Zhao Yun over and said, "Yan Ming, this is Zhao Yun and Zhao Zilong, my chief bookkeeper."
Yan Xing and Zhao Yun were both tall men eight feet tall. They looked at each other and saw the determination and something familiar in each other's eyes. They both felt awe-inspiring and secretly felt fear in their hearts.
"Zilong just arrived today. I'll prepare some side dishes and let's have a few drinks together."
Chen Cheng doesn't like drinking too much, but he does like the rice wine of this era. Although it is a bit turbid, the alcohol content is low, and it has a somewhat sweet feeling, and the taste is very good. You know, he drinks beer with Sprite.
, I like this soft texture the most.
Of course, it's not that he can't drink high-alcohol spirits, and he can drink a lot of them, but he just doesn't like them very much.
Zhao Yun and Chen Cheng had spent some time together in Guanzi City and knew his temperament. He was not surprised that he could cook by himself. Instead, he took off his armor and rolled up his sleeves to help.
Liu Qian shouted from the side: "I'm here to help, too."
Chen Cheng looked at the five or six arrows left in her quiver, waved his hand and said, "Shoot all your arrows first."
Liu Qian pouted in dissatisfaction and shot the arrow unhappily.
Zhao Yun asked while helping, "Is that Princess Wannian?"
"Yes," Chen Cheng quickly chopped the meat into pieces, added cooking wine, salt, chicken powder, ginger, garlic, marinated it, and then prepared other things, "You can teach her archery in the future."
Liu Qian, who was eavesdropping while shooting, felt unhappy. She loosened her fingers and the arrow flew out of the target range and hit the grass behind.
Zhao Yun smiled and said: "If it's an archery competition, I can't compare with your lord."
Chen Cheng said "Hey" and said, "What do you call me, lord? There are no outsiders here."
Zhao Yun looked aside and saw Yan Zhong and Yan Xing kneeling on the floor, talking in a low voice. Seeing Zhao Yun looking over, Yan Xing also looked up.
Yan Zhong said: "There are only a few roads that can be taken from Hanyang to Anding. If Han Sui wants to make a quick decision, he will definitely gather all the troops and horses in Hanyang, and then go to Ayang and cross Liupan Mountain. The next step will be to see what he does.
We should take Gaoping first, or we should attack Pengyang directly."
As he spoke, he dipped his fingers in water and drew a rough terrain on the table. After pondering for a moment, Yan Zhong said: "I have been away from Xiliang for a long time, and I don't know much about the recent situation here. Do you think Han Sui will
Which option to choose?”
Yan Zhong asked several times, and Yan Xingcai looked back and asked in a low voice: "Uncle, don't we go to help?"
"No need, the prince will not care about such a trivial matter. Do you think Han Sui will attack Pengyang directly?"
Yan Xing looked at the case table for a while, then reached out and clicked a few times near Gaoping, and said: "If I were Han Wenyue, I would not attack Gaoping. I would only capture Xiaoguan and send more than a thousand cavalry to garrison it."
Move your troops there, so that Gaoping's soldiers and horses will be blocked in the north. Then the army will march directly to Jingyang, and then divide the troops to attack and stabilize the city. The main force will wait here for Ma Teng to lead his troops for a decisive battle!"
"Anwu?" Yan Zhong thought for a while and asked, "I'm afraid Ma Shoucheng is not willing to fight here."
Yan Xingdao: "If you don't want to fight decisively when you get here, who will follow Ma Teng?"
Yan Zhong said "Oh", looked at the case for a while, and said, "What if this is the case?"
He drew a circle at the three-way intersection behind Liupan Mountain and said, "If Ma Teng stations his main force here, can Han Sui come over?"
Yan Xingdao: "Although this place is not far from the Jingshui River, it is surrounded by plains and there is no danger to defend. If Ma Teng fights decisively here, it will be more beneficial to Han Sui."
Yan Zhong said: "Then sending troops to block the pass of Liupan Mountain is not enough?"
"Han Sui has a hundred thousand usable troops. Even if he divides his troops to garrison Hanyang in Longxi, he can mobilize at least 60,000. If Ma Teng is fully prepared, his troops will not exceed 40,000. If Liupan Mountain is blocked,
The pass, that is who is stronger."
"Hey, so Ma Teng is doomed?" Yan Zhong said with a smile: "How about we ask Han Sui in advance to give us a way to survive?"
Yan Xing shook his head and said: "Planning is only one aspect. For war, decision-making on the battlefield is the most important. If you can win with more troops, then why fight? Let's spread out the troops and compete with each other.
Finished?"
While they were talking here, Liu Qian had already shot all the arrows over there, and then helped Chen Cheng put the fried vegetables on the plates.
Chen Cheng asked his soldiers to come and get a portion, then brought the plates to the lobby and distributed them to everyone. He poured a glass of juice for Liu Qian and said, "Drink this."
He personally poured a glass of wine for Zhao Yun, Yan Zhong and Yan Xing, and said with a smile: "Here, I'll drink to you all, I'll do it first, you can do whatever you want."
Yan Zhong had no interest in eating or drinking, so he spent some food and wine indiscriminately and said, "Yan Ming, how many people can you recruit from the Qiang tribe?"
Yan Xing swallowed the food in his mouth and said, "No less than a thousand people."
Yan Zhong said: "Too few."
Chen Cheng smiled and said: "It's too many. It's enough for me to support four hundred people now. If I recruit another thousand people, I will be impoverished."
Yan Zhong said: "The more people there are, the more expenses will be incurred, but the more people there are, the more space will be taken up."
Chen Cheng stopped with the chopsticks in his hand and asked, "What did Ma Shoucheng say? Are you willing to lend us a piece of land to stay temporarily?"
Yan Zhong said: "He neither agrees nor disagrees. It seems that he still has doubts and is afraid that we will occupy the magpie's nest."
Chen Cheng laughed and said: "I once heard such a story. It said that an owl caught a mouse in the woods and was about to eat it. Suddenly he saw a phoenix flying from above. The owl was immediately frightened.
He screamed and said angrily: "Are you trying to steal my mouse? How does it know that a phoenix cannot live in a phoenix tree or drink from a clear spring?"
Yan Zhong said: "I have also read this story by Zhuangzi, but I am afraid that neither Ma Teng nor Ma Chao have read it, and they will not understand Phoenix's ambition."
Chen Cheng said: "After tomorrow, they will understand a little bit."
After dinner, Yan Zhong and Yan Xing left first, leaving Chen Huacheng and the three of them in the backyard.
Seeing that Yan Xing was far away, he said in a low voice: "The Marquis of Julu must pay close attention to every penny and everything he does. He doesn't seem like someone who can do big things."
Yan Zhong looked at his nephew in surprise and said, "Is this what you think?"
He said to Yan Xing, "I told you to take a closer look. In a few days you will know what kind of person the prince is."
In the backyard of the county government office, Chen Cheng asked Liu Qian to sit on the edge, and then told Zhao Yun some things that happened after they parted. When he mentioned what the late emperor said before he died of illness, Liu Qian couldn't help crying.
Chen Cheng touched her hair and said, "Okay, okay, don't cry."
Zhao Yun sighed: "So that's it.
Chen Cheng said: "Zilong came from Luoyang, there must be many people there scolding me, right?"
Zhao Yun hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said: "Some people are saying bad things about Wenzheng, saying that you ordered Luoyang to be set on fire, but some people say that it was Yuan Shu and He Jin's people who did it."
"Hey, you're right to say bad things about me." Chen Cheng poured another glass of juice for Liu Qian, and then said: "He Jin and I used Luoyang as the battlefield, and countless people were killed and injured. If I win, that's it.
That’s all, now that He Jin has won, why don’t they continue to scold me? A gentleman lives in a lowly position!”
He asked Zhao Yundao: "Have the unrest in Luoyang been quelled? How many places have the fire burned?"
Zhao Yundao said: "Half of Luoyang was burned down. When I came, there were still many people outside the city who had no food and clothing, because Taicang was also burned down. It is said that the general wanted to put out food, but there was no food to put out.
"
"Half of this is my fault," Chen Cheng asked again: "How are the soldiers in the Yueqi Camp? Did the general hold them accountable?"
Zhao Yun said: "I don't know about that. There are soldiers and horses inside and outside the city. I remembered to inquire about Wen Zheng's whereabouts, so I didn't stay long, but I heard that bandits are often in and out of the city and nearby villages."
"Have you ever encountered Zilong?"
"I met him twice."
Chen Cheng shook his head and said, "What did He Jin do? There are so many bandits near the majestic imperial capital. It's really laughable."
Zhao Yundao said: "It is said that on the day of the Luoyang Fire, after the arsenal caught fire, a lot of weapons flowed into the people. Because of the influx of troops, food was tight inside and outside Luoyang. Many people had no food, so they had no choice but to take risks and become bandits."
"Does Zilong think those bandits are excusable?"
"The other generation just wanted to eat in one go at first," Zhao Yun sighed and said, "But once the knife is used and blood is stained, they will become extremely ferocious and will never stop."
