Near the magistrate's office in Huanggang City, there is a magnificent building, which is a garden built by Huangzhou's wealthy merchants. The garden has luxuriant flowers and grass, overlapping rockeries, and high embroidered tiles nestled among green bamboo trees.
Zhang Xianzhong chose this garden as his palace. A large flag hung conspicuously in front of the palace with the four words "Heaven and Man Return". Ever since Zhang Xianzhong attacked Xiangyang and forced Yang Sichang to death, he had been paying close attention to the destiny of the people.
It is said that he is becoming more and more obsessed with it. In ordinary oral orders, there are often words such as "heaven" and "man".
In order to welcome Li Laiheng who came from afar, Xiying went out to welcome Li Laiheng with great fanfare and grandeur. Zhang Wenxiu, one of Zhang Xianzhong's adopted sons, led a team of warriors wearing colorful clothes and cloth armor as they went out to greet him. As they walked, the armor leaves clashed, and the city
There was the sound of fighting on all sides.
After the Western Camp conquered Huanggang, although the military strength of the Western Camp surpassed that of the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo, it was still inferior to Li Laiheng. Li Laiheng was still dressed in a red tassel felt hat and a sky-blue arrow jacket, but the cavalry behind him not only had a more powerful formation than Li Laiheng,
It was more orderly than before, and all the people and horses were wearing bright armor. Under the sun, the armor shined brightly, making people stunned.
Zhang Wenxiu, who had been working hard to give Li Laiheng a taste of his power, was dumbfounded by the overwhelming power of the army. He had followed Zhang Xianzhong in the war for many years, and it was not that he had never seen elite soldiers and horses of this level. He just listened to Commander Xu,
Military Advisor Pan said that Li Laiheng was just the adopted son of Li Zicheng's adopted son. His seniority was not as high as his own, but he actually had such strength?
The tall Hao Yaoqi walked in the front, followed by Ma Bao, who was covered in armor. Both of them were wearing armor and swords. From a distance, they looked like a walking statue of the King of Heaven or a Vajra statue.
The momentum is so powerful that it frightens people.
Zhang Xianzhong and his other adopted sons were in the mansion and did not leave the mansion to greet them. Zhang Kewang also persuaded the eight kings: "Father, a tiger has entered the urn. Kill him now and we can achieve our own virtue. Huang Erfu,
There’s no need to look at Chuang Ying’s face anymore.”
Zhang Dingguo, who helped Zhang Xianzhong attack Xiangyang, objected: "Thieves do not kill thieves! No matter how arrogant Li Laiheng is, he still gave us a resting place to rest his troops. If we ignore our kindness and attack and kill Li Laiheng, Cao Cao will
, Ge, General Zuo Quan cannot tolerate me. The Western Camp cannot resist the officers and soldiers on its own now, so it must rely on the soldiers and horses that break into the camp to divide the power of the officers and soldiers."
Zhang Kewang shook his head and said: "Pedantic opinion."
Neither Zhang Kewang nor Zhang Dingguo's words touched Zhang Xianzhong. He clutched his long, slightly brown beard and looked at his adopted son intently. Among his several godsons, he was good at attack and defense, but Zhang Xianzhong valued him most.
There is still hope for peace and stability in the country.
Both of them were loyal to him, but Wang Wang often went to extremes, while Ding Guo was too upright. Take today's matter as an example, Wang Wang's opinion was too impatient, and Ding Guo's opinion was too pedantic.
However, compared to Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong was better at cultivating his adopted son's unique talents. He nodded with admiration in his eyes and said to the two of them: "You two brats, what you said is right. How dare you give us something?"
I will never forget anyone who is arrogant. But Li Laiheng, a young kid, still has some uses for him, so we can’t help but deal with him for a while."
Seeing the unconvinced look on Zhang Kewang's face, he lowered his voice and laughed: "Look at this little tiger, bringing such an elite cavalry to Huanggang. Even if we close the city gates on all sides, we will definitely be able to surround him and kill him."
?If things don't work out, it will give Ding Qirui an opportunity to take advantage of it!"
Zhang Kewang still said harshly: "Ding Qirui is a cowardless person, and he will not dare to cross the river to attack me."
Just as Zhang Xianzhong was about to say a few more words, military advisor Xu Yixian reminded him: "Commander, Li Laiheng is here."
"Hmph! Let's get to know this little tiger first!"
Zhang Xianzhong swung his beard and led everyone to greet Li Laiheng in the atrium of the mansion. He pretended to be intimate. As soon as he saw Li Laiheng, he stepped forward and hugged him. He said with a smile: "Zicheng and I are brothers, and you are Zicheng."
A good grandson, of course he is also a good grandson of my Eight Great Kings!"
As the troops came in all the way, except for Ma Bao, who had a military background, Hao Yaoqi and Zhang Pili, who had never seen the world, couldn't help but look around at this gorgeous garden with carved beams and painted buildings, looking at the rows of rooms, secretly feeling in their hearts.
Let out an exclamation.
Li Laiheng was pricked painfully by Zhang Xianzhong's beard, but he didn't pay attention to the "good grandson" one after another from the eight kings. He hurriedly replied: "I am only in Huguang to suppress the troops and calm the people, and the eight kings are in Lu again."
Zhou Zhou defeated Ding Qirui several times. We fired from both sides, and the officers and soldiers were overwhelmed. Xiying has now taken Huanggang, but plans to continue to attack Wuchang, so as to capture Ding Qirui?"
Li Laiheng's question went straight to the core of Xiying's strategy, which made Zhang Xianzhong look stern. After the eight kings hugged their beards, they just exchanged a few nonsense words without giving a direct answer.
Xu Yixian, the military advisor of the Western Camp, said: "The young general cares so much about Ding Qirui, why not go to the Jiangting Pavilion with my commander to see the beautiful scenery of the Yangtze River?"
The Pavilion on the River was first built in the Song Dynasty. Its original name was the Pavilion on the River, which means "a bottle returns the moon on the River" written by Su Shi in "Niannujiao Chibi Nostalgia".
The most famous scenic spot in Huanggang is probably Dongpo Red Cliff, also known as "Wen Chibi". Li Laiheng looked at the elite knights beside him, pondered for a while, and finally agreed.
Under the leadership of Zhang Dingguo, everyone went to the riverside to watch the scenery. Almost all the civil and military generals of Xiying accompanied them. After Li Laiheng nodded and saluted them, he went up to the steps and looked at the river bank in the distance.
"Is the other side of the river Wuchang City where Ding Qirui is stationed?"
Zhang Dingguo answered him: "The opposite side is not Wuchang City, but Wuchang City is not far away."
Everyone climbed up the stairs and first went to the Qixia Tower, which was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty, to look at Red Cliff from a distance. Xu Yixian flourished in literary circles, and saw that there were many poems written by his predecessors in the building, so he and Pan Duao started reciting them together.
When Zhang Xianzhong and Li Laiheng saw this, they looked at each other and laughed, and the atmosphere seemed a little more harmonious. When Li Laiheng saw the signature of a poem in the building with the words "Tied by Li Shizhen of Qizhou", he realized that Li Shizhen was also from Qizhou.
.
Zhang Dingguo followed him and asked in confusion: "Who is Li Shizhen of Qizhou?"
Another new counselor from Xiying, Wang Zhaolin, explained to him: "Li Shizhen is a famous person in Huguang who hangs pots to help the world. He seems to be very good at poetry."
Zhang Xianzhong stroked his long beard, listened for a while, and suddenly said: "Today I also write a poem."
Everyone in Xiying's civil and military circles knew that Zhang Xianzhong was very smart, but they had never heard that he could compose poetry. Hearing this, they couldn't help but feel suspicious. Even Xu Yixian, who was closest to Zhang Xianzhong, was surprised, because in the past, anything that required literary and ink writing was done.
It was ghostwritten by him or Pan Duao.
However, Li Laiheng was very interested and said to the eight kings: "Then let's take a look at the poetic talents of the eight kings."
Zhang Xianzhong chuckled and asked Wang Zhaolin to write the words on the wall for him. Zhang Xianzhong quickly read out the first sentence, and the people around him immediately shouted "Okay". Then he read out the second and third sentences, and everyone around him looked at each other.
.
This last sentence is even more surprising. The whole poem is:
The rolling river flows away without returning it,
They are separated from each other by the Yangtze River.
Jiangnan is no better than Zhu Ming Dynasty,
I am standing on the red cliff!
Among the four lines of the poem, except for the first line, which happens to conform to the meter, the other three lines are all messed up, and the last line doesn't even have a sentence structure that looks like poetry.
Only Li Laiheng laughed a few times and said to Zhang Xianzhong: "Are the Eight Kings interested in Jiangnan?"
Zhang Xianzhong laughed heartily. He held his beard in his hand, shook his head and said, "Don't you feel bad for making Lao Ge and Lao Hui Gang? To be honest, I had some plans to fight with Lao Ge and Lao Hui Gang."
In one place, we captured De'an and Huangzhou to eat food. But now that I have seen your soldiers and horses, I am afraid that Lao Ge wants to coax me to go against the wall!"
The Eighth King waved his hand and offered the chips: "Arrange 300 large ships and sufficient provisions for us in Xiying. After I gain a foothold in Jiangnan, I will even give you Huanggang City. How about it? I'll help you.
Boy, take care of Ding Qirui, help me withstand Zuo Liangyu, this business is not a loss."
Zhang Xianzhong came straight to the point, and Li Laiheng silently calculated in his mind that even if he could surrender the fifth Gezuo Battalion at this stage, it would still be very difficult to deal with the two armies of Zuo Liangyu and Ding Qirui at the same time.
If Zhang Xianzhong can cross the river to attack Ding Qirui, it will indeed help the Chuang army share the pressure. He Yilong and Lao Huihui will probably be able to calm down a lot after losing the foreign aid of Zhang Xianzhong.
Just 300 large ships and grain supplies for Xiying... Even if Li Laiheng managed the second mansion and achieved some success, it would still be a huge burden for him.