As Guo Song deduced, the news of Tian Yue's murder also reached Luoyang on the second day of the first lunar month. This news did not surprise Zhu Si at all. He had previously ordered the generals lurking in Xiangzhou to lead his men to disguise themselves as civilians and sneak into Yuancheng, and then used
Li Bao's name appeared just to take the blame for Tian Xu.
However, Zhu Si did not expect that Tian Xu would really succeed. This news made him very happy, and he immediately ordered military advisor Liu Sigu to see him.
Not long after, Liu Sigu arrived at the Qilin Hall. The Qilin Hall was Zhu Si's inner study. During breaks or holidays, he usually met with ministers here.
Generally, there is no official position of military advisor in the imperial court, so Liu Sigu was named Prince Shaobao, Grand Bachelor of Jixian Palace, and other staff and military advisors were also granted the title of Bachelor.
"Your Majesty is anxious to summon the ministers, but because of Tian Yue's death?" Liu Sigu was in charge of the intelligence, and he knew the news of Tian Xu's seizure of the throne before Zhu Si.
"That's right, so I want to discuss with the military advisor how we should respond?"
In fact, how to deal with it? They had a secret agreement with Tian Xu a long time ago. He supported Tian Xu to succeed the king of Wei and Wei Bo Jiedushi, and in return Tian Xu would give up Huaizhou to Zhu Si.
For this reason, they agreed on a detailed response plan. Now that Tian Yue is dead, they can just follow the response plan. Why do they still ask themselves how to respond?
Liu Sigu immediately realized that Zhu Si might have changed his mind.
"What is your Majesty's intention?" Liu Sigu asked.
Zhu Si pondered for a while and said: "Southern Hebei is a fertile land! It has a large population and fertile land. How can such a good place be controlled by an immoral and incompetent person like Tian Xu? I think Guo Song thinks the same way,
Now that the ice is frozen in winter, it is good for us to cross the river. Our 200,000-strong army might as well go directly north to wipe out the Wei State. Does the military advisor think it is feasible?"
As expected, he guessed it right. Liu Sigu sighed in his heart. Guo Song had already regarded the Wei Kingdom as something within his grasp. How could he allow them to get involved?
But if things are not done, Zhu Si will never accept it.
Liu Sigu knew that Zhu Si had actually made a decision, and he just let himself support it.
He thought for a while and said: "Your Majesty might as well send an envoy to see Tian Xu and ask him to fulfill his agreement and give up Huaizhou. If I am right, he will definitely not agree."
"Why?" Zhu Si interrupted him and asked in confusion.
"If he dares to agree, then he will not be able to get rid of the crime of killing Tian Yue. Doesn't it prove that he colluded with us to kill Tian Yue? I am sure that he will not agree."
"Then what?"
"Your Majesty, as long as we publicly announce that Tian Yue's death has nothing to do with us, and that it was Tian Xu's dead men who killed his brother to seize the throne, then the Wei army will inevitably be divided. Our army will be overwhelming when it goes north and attack Yuancheng in one fell swoop. Then at least we will occupy Weizhou.
It's stable, plus Bozhou, Weizhou and Huaizhou, we can win at least four states."
"What about Xiangzhou? We have been operating in Xiangzhou for so many years. Is it all in vain?" Zhu Si said with some dissatisfaction.
"I'm really not sure about the humble position of Xiangzhou. It depends on luck! If you are lucky, you may be able to capture Xiangzhou."
Zhu Si nodded, "Okay! Just follow the advice of the military advisor, let's be polite first and then attack!"
.........
Tian Xu's true colors were revealed soon after he came to power. He first sent Tian Yue's wife and three sons to live in Dizhou, but secretly sent people to kill them on the way to avoid future troubles.
At the same time, he purged Tian Yue's confidants in the army. More than 20 generals were dismissed or secretly executed. Tian Xu quickly took control of the military. He immediately established a 5,000-strong Wei Feng camp based on his 500 dead soldiers.
, specializes in monitoring the officials and people of Wei State, and immediately arrests anyone who criticizes him.
Under high-pressure rule, Tian Xu ascended the throne as King of Wei on the tenth day of the first lunar month and moved into the Wei Palace openly and honestly.
At this time, the special envoy sent by Zhu Si, Han Song, the young minister of Honglu Temple, arrived in Yuancheng.
Tian Xu was still a little nervous about the arrival of Zhu Si's special envoy. He knew exactly why the envoy came. After all, he and Zhu Si had a written agreement, promising to cede Huaizhou to Zhu Si after Zhu Si helped him seize the throne.
On the one hand, Tian Xu was afraid that his collusion with Zhu Si would be exposed, and the rumors circulating in the market that he had killed Tian Yue would be confirmed, which would greatly affect his reputation. On the other hand, Tian Xu did not intend to bring Huaizhou to justice.
He assigned it to Zhu Si. He believed that Zhu Si did not contribute much to his seizure of the throne. Although Li Bao took the blame, he immediately found dozens of people pretending to be Li Bao and could still fool him.
Zhu Si didn't contribute at all, but he wanted to get a share of the pie. How could Tian Xu agree?
Tian Xu did not meet Han Song, but asked military advisor Xu Shize to see him.
Before noon, Xu Shize came back, and Tian Xu hurriedly greeted him, "Military advisor, what did the other party say?"
Xu Shize shook his head, "Your Highness, the other party's attitude is very tough and requires us to hand over Huaizhou to them within three days, otherwise..."
"Otherwise what?" Tian Xu's face was extremely ugly. He had already guessed what Xu Shize was going to say.
"Your Highness should know what he means, which is to make public the agreement we signed with Zhu Si."
Tian Xu snorted heavily. He was really unwilling to accept it, but the other party held his hand. He took a few steps back and forth with his hands behind his back and said to Xu Shize: "Three days are too short. Tell Han Song, at least
Give them Huaizhou after three months, and they are not allowed to station troops on the south bank of the Yellow River. Once I find out that they have any intention of attacking northward, all agreements will be void."
Tian Xu's wishful thinking was that he could fulfill the agreement, but at least he had to wait until he was firmly on the throne. In addition, in three months, the Yellow River would also thaw, and it would not be so convenient for Zhu Si's army to go north.
Xu Shize knew that Tian Xu wanted to break the contract, but Zhu Si was so easy to fool. Maybe a war would break out, but Tian Xu wanted to use the war to consolidate his military power.
Xu Shize had no choice but to leave in a hurry.
.........
The Fuyang River in Xiangzhou is the boundary river between Xiangzhou and Mingzhou, and it is also the dividing line between the Wei and Jin Dynasties. This morning, a cavalry of 3,000 people arrived at the Fuyang River Bridge.
This army was the three thousand scouts commanded by Zhang Yun. They were ordered by the King of Jin to enter Xiangzhou under the pretext of suppressing bandits.
Zhang Yun looked at the checkpoints on the Fuyang River in Wei State from a distance. He could still faintly see the military camp in the distance. He turned around and asked General Zhou Fei: "How many troops are there on the other side?"
Zhou Fei has officially joined the Jin army and was named General Lang by Guo Song. This time he is going to Xiangzhou as Zhang Yun's deputy general.
Zhou Fei nodded and said: "First of all, there must be a garrison on the other side, otherwise a large number of people from Xiangzhou would come to Mingzhou to buy salt and rice. However, the garrison will not be too many, only about two to three thousand people."
"How do you know?" Zhang Yun asked with a smile.
"Because what Xiangzhou needs to defend is not us, but Li Bao of Chiyan Village. The characteristic of the distribution of troops in Xiangzhou is that there are garrisons in every county, but there are not many garrisons, about a thousand people, so I infer that the military strength at the border will not be
too much."
Zhang Yun smiled slightly and said: "Then let's see if your inference is correct?"
He immediately ordered: "Go to the North Checkpoint and bring two soldiers over!"
Several cavalrymen rushed away. To the north of the bridge was the patrol point of the Jin Army. The Jin Army also had a thousand soldiers on the north bank. After a while, two Jin Army sentries were led over.
The two knelt down on one knee and saluted: "See General Zhang!"
"Let me ask you, how many patrol soldiers are there on the south bank?" Zhang Yun asked.
"General Qi, there were originally three thousand people, but a few days ago we said we were going to organize an army to suppress the bandits, so we transferred two thousand people. Currently, there are still about a thousand people, all of whom are old and weak."
Zhang Yun secretly gave Zhou Fei a thumbs up, his inference was very accurate, and he asked again: "What does it mean to dispatch bandits to suppress them?"
"We don't know the details. We have to ask our leader. He is in the military camp."
"Where is the military camp?"
The sentry pointed to the west, "General, walk twenty miles west along the path and you will see it."
"Thank you very much!"
Zhang Yun turned his horse's head and shouted: "Follow me!"
He led three thousand cavalry and rushed westward.
After running for only half an hour, a military camp appeared in front of us. The military camp was not big, covering an area of only about 200 acres. It was surrounded by fences and contained 300 sheepskin tents. This kind of sheepskin tent is the treasure of the prairie people.
, warm in winter and cool in summer, very comfortable. There are thousands of troops stationed in the whole camp.
Three thousand cavalrymen rushed to the front of the camp in an instant. The sentry had already seen it and ran to report it. After a while, the general ran out.
He cupped his fists and saluted: "I am Li Wenliang, General of the Army. Who is here?"
A soldier shouted loudly: "The leader of my family is the general of the scout army, General Zhang Yun!"
Li Wenliang was taken aback and quickly knelt down on one knee, "I don't know how humble my position is, so please forgive me for being negligent, general!"
At present, among the 300,000-strong army of the Jin Kingdom, the highest military position is General Tiance, who was appointed by the King of Jin, followed closely by the general. There are currently only three generals, General Yao Jin of the Flying Cavalry Guard, General Li Bing of the Flying Cavalry Guard, and
Anxi Wei General Ma Weijiang.
Below the general are generals, and generals are divided into three levels: generals of guard, generals of cavalry, and generals of hussars. Currently, there are only four generals of hussars, Liang Wu, Zhang Yun, Luo Daxiao, and Kang Bao.
Therefore, when General Li Wenliang heard that he was General Zhang Yun, he was deeply in awe and saluted him.
Zhang Yun smiled slightly and said: "No need to be polite, we just rest for a while, feed the horses, and leave immediately."
"There is food and fodder in the military camp. Please follow your humble duty and enter the camp to rest!"
Zhang Yun nodded and ordered: "Dismount and enter the camp!"
The horsemen dismounted one after another and led their horses towards the camp.