Luoyang, Ziwei Palace.

With Wang Shichong's implementation of the castrated version of the Juntian system and the imperial examination system, the prestige of the Zheng court was gradually established, accompanied by Wang Shichong's more outstanding prestige.

Whenever Wang Shichong accepted the courtiers to deal with government affairs, he had to give affectionate and sincere advice. He sometimes took a few entourages to inspect the thoroughfares, and did not arrange a guard to prohibit pedestrians, the people only need to give way, every now and then, Wang Shichong would always dismount and walk slowly, and said to the people: "In the past, the emperor Gao lived in the palace every day, and could not understand the real people's feelings and opinions. I, Wang Shichong, ascended to the throne, and I didn't covet the throne, but the purpose was to let everyone live a good life, so I am now like an ordinary official, I will personally handle everything, and comment on the gains and losses of the government with the people of Limin. Worried that the ban on the palace gate has restrictions, everyone's opinions can't be transmitted, and now I'm busy coming out to listen to everyone's opinions. ”

Not only that, but he also accepted cases in the West Dynasty and listened to people's suggestions in the East Dynasty. It's just that hundreds or thousands of people come every day, and the letters are already very complicated, and it is rare to think about them thoroughly, so they no longer go out in a few days on the grounds that they are busy with state affairs. Then, he threw the work of receiving the petitioners to the crown prince Wang Xuanying to deal with it, and the trivial things every day made Wang Xuanying one head and two big, but Wang Shichong's order had to be listened to, so he had no choice but to hold on, who made him the prince. However, the benefits are also obvious, not only making his people-friendly image deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but also making his governance level rise gradually.

Duan Da and Yun Dingxing entered Ziwei Palace side by side.

"Two adults, the Holy One has been waiting for a long time." At the door, an old eunuch saluted the two.

"Understood." Duan Da and Yun Dingxing nodded one after another, and their faces were a little solemn. After Li Yuan was defeated and retreated to the south, in the recent period, he continued to increase troops in Shangluo and Fangling counties, and the atmosphere of the big war has enveloped Luoyang, but at present, Wang Shichong's side is not ready to engage in battle. First, the territory is small, only Henan, Hongnong, Xiangcheng, Shuyang, Xingyang five counties, and the second is that Wang Shichong has not recovered from the trauma of the war, this is the sorrow of the small people who are small.

According to the prediction of Wang Shichong and a group of strategists, if this battle is postponed for another half a year, after Wang Shichong recovers, he can rest assured that he can boldly fight with Zhu Cang, as long as he controls the north of Xiyang Hanshui and the Nanyang region, he can stabilize the south, but Li Yuan, who is based in Fangling, obviously sees the key and is not ready to give them half a year.

Time waits for no man!

At this moment, the two of them were in a very heavy mood, and hurriedly walked towards the Wensi Palace. After the salute, under the signal of Wang Shichong, they each sat down.

"Look at this, it's probably the best news in a while." Wang Shichong handed an urgent report to the two of them to circulate and smiled.

Duan Da and Yun Dingxing were surprised when they heard this, this time the war clouds were dense, basically there was no good news, some time ago came the news that Li Yuan intended to form an alliance with the Imperial Sui, fortunately, this side has not reacted in time, Guanzhong has been taken by Yang Tong, but unfortunately, together with more than 10 million people in Guanzhong, they have also become Yang Dong's. Then most of the news received was that the princes of the Quartet were about to move, and Li Mi was also inseparable from Du Fuwei in the Jianghuai area.

Although Wang Shichong occupies the five counties of the Central Plains, he has natural disadvantages such as small strategic depth, small population, and surrounded by land, Yang Dong in the north, Li Yuan in the west, and Li Mi in the east, none of them are fuel-efficient lamps, and there is no danger to defend in the Central Plains, either Yang Tong and Li Yuan can fight with Wang Shichong with all their might, but Wang Shichong must take care of the Quartet, which is also the reason why Wang Shichong does not dare to open up the battlefield now, he can take out too few people and horses, not even as much as Yang Dong's two percent of the ten, that is to say, Wang Shichong's soldiers and horses are less than 100,000, after the four sides are divided, the number of troops who can maneuver and fight is even more pitiful.

The content of the urgent report is not much, but it is enough to surprise the two, the cannibal demon Zhu Cang was forced by Li Yuan's pressure to pay tribute to Wang Shichong, Zhu Cang now has an army of 60,000, he is fierce and brutal, but on the other hand, he dares to do big things, and he is very courageous.

……

Zhu Cang is the most brutal of the princes of all walks of life, earlier was a small official in the county, and then joined the army, crusading against the traitors of Changbai Mountain, deeply touched, so he escaped, gathered the army, and also became a traitor, called "Da Han thief", called "King Garuda".

Zhu Cang has a brutal temperament, no grand ambitions, and no lofty political ideals. What he is passionate about is conquering cities and killing people. He led such a force to exterminate humanity, slaughtered in the east and slaughtered in the west, conquered the counties, did not care about good and evil, did not distinguish between good and bad, killed them all, and left no chickens and dogs wherever he passed.

Plundering between the Han River and the Huai River, every time a state and county were attacked, before they had eaten up the grain accumulated in the state and county, they would be transferred again, and when they left the state and county, they burned all the rest of the materials in the state and county, and Zhu Cang's army had nothing to plunder, and there was a lack of food in the army, so Zhu Cang asked the soldiers to cook women and children to eat. Later, Nanyang was conquered, and Zhu Cang established himself as the Emperor of Chu.

Since being beaten out of Shangluo County by Li Xiaogong, the scope of activities has been in Xiyang and Nanyang.

The enemy he faced at this time was Li Xiaogong, who had defeated him, although Li Tang made a gesture of impatience, but in fact, Li Daozong had led 20,000 troops into Xiyang County, hiding in Nanxiang County, and at this time Li Xiaogong led 30,000 troops to attack the city in Xiyang, and when he captured the last Danshui County, he led the army to be stationed in Nanxiang County, which was only thirty miles away from the secret camp where Li Daozong was.

After Li Tang made the judgment that the Sui Dynasty would not interfere, he decided to lay a territory in the south and capture the Jingzhou region where Xiao Mo was located, but Zhu Cang was blocked by the key land where they went north and east, so Li Tang first wanted to exterminate Zhu Cang. It's just that when Li Xiaogong took Xiyang County, he got the news that Zhu Cang surrendered to Wang Shichong.

When Li Xiaogong marched into the army, he was also paying close attention to the changes in the situation.

In the Yanai of Nanxiang County, Li Xiaogong and Li Daozong, who had just arrived, discussed countermeasures, and Li Xiaogong took a few steps and said: "Wang Shichong led an army of 40,000 to help, but the speed of the march was not fast. ”

Li Daozong smiled and asked, "I don't know what Wang Shichong thinks?" ”

"I led the army to fight fiercely with Zhu Cang, Wang Shichong did not take the opportunity to attack on the side, his performance was very strange."

"Wang Shichong hopes to fight with us and Zhu Cang, and then reap the benefits of the fisherman, right?" Li Daozong asked.

Li Xiaogong said: "I think Wang Shichong is forcing Zhu Cang to let go of his military power and obey his arrangement with peace of mind. ”

"In this case, we need to annihilate Zhu Cang's army as soon as possible to prevent the two armies from uniting."

"I also know that the situation is critical!" Li Xiaogong said worriedly: "The key now is to see that Zhu Cang has shrunk to Nanyang, and we have no fighters to break the enemy." ”

"Brother!" Li Daozong smiled and said, "When the elder brother was attacking the city and plundering the land, the younger brother was not hiding in the forest to feed the mosquitoes. Instead, two people were contacted. ”

"Who?" Li Xiaogong said curiously.

"Lu Congdian, Yan Chuchu." Li Daozong said with a smile: "Lu Congdian was originally a writer of the Sui Dynasty. Yan Chuchu was originally a general of the Sui Dynasty, the second son of the great Confucian Yan Zhitui, and both of them lived in Nanyang because of their demotion to officials. Zhu Cang invited them to be his guests, and later Zhu Cang lacked food, so he ate the whole family of the two of them. The two hated him deeply, but they had to govern the 'capital' for Zhu Cang, and they had a certain status in Zhu Cang's army. I have a plan, but I can break Zhu Cang. ”

Li Xiaogong was overjoyed.

……

Zhu Cang's martial arts are outstanding, his appearance is vicious, he is a person who has little intelligence and lacks great wisdom, he has no political acumen, and he has never thought of dominating the world, he likes to fight the war most like the army to press, the kind of army to crush the city, the joy of bloodbathing the city after the city is broken, makes him crazy with excitement.

Prior to this, Wang Shichong had sent people to persuade him to surrender many times, but Zhu Cang refused, and this time the Tang army went south, which made Zhu Wei feel great pressure, he knew that he was deeply guilty, and no one dared to contain him except Wang Shichong.

However, Zhu Cang still had 60,000 troops in his hands, and he thought that he still had hope of defeating the Tang army, so after Zhu Cang expressed his surrender to Wang Shichong, he did not go to Luoyang for a long time.

On this morning, Zhu Cang heard that Li Xiaogong led 30,000 troops to Nanyang City, and Zhu Cang ordered the army to prepare for battle. ”

Zhu Cang is a self-righteous person, he uses Yan Chuchu as the mastermind, more for him to deal with the messy problem of dividing the results of the battle, rather than liking others to interfere.

Zhu Cang's face was full of unhappiness and asked, "What news?" ”

"I heard that the Tang army was robbing the people's rations in Xiyang, and the lowly thought that the Tang army should be short of food, so Li Xiaogong was in a hurry to fight a decisive battle."

"What does that mean?" Zhu Cang's voice is very loud, and it takes great courage to talk to him.

Yan Chuchu said: "If we close the city and do not fight, the Tang army will inevitably be forced to retreat after the grain and grass are not followed, and the king can chase and kill the past and defeat it in a battle." ”

"How do you conclude that Li Xiaogong is short of food?" Zhu Cang is not a fool, he knows how powerful the Guan Long magnates behind Li Tang are

Lu Congdian continued: "After Li Tang was blasted out of Guanzhong by Yang Tong, he didn't bring out the slightest property, and coupled with the drought this year, it is normal for the Tang army to lack food. ”

Zhu Cang thought about it and felt that this was the case, he poked Yan Chu's chest heavily with his fingers, revealing a mouthful of white Sensen's teeth, and said coldly: "If you say it wrong, Lao Tzu will come back and stew you!" ”

Yan Chuchu trembled with fright, this man-eating demon king is not joking.

Zhu Cang immediately closed the door without fighting, and the Tang army sent soldiers to Nanyang City every day to scold and provoke the battle, trying to provoke Zhu Cang to fight, but Zhu Cang saw the Tang army's eagerness to fight, and began to believe Yan Chuchu's inference, which would go out of the city for a decisive battle.

Three days later, the soldiers defending the city suddenly came to report, saying that the Tang army had retreated, and Zhu Cang was overjoyed and went out of the city to check the Tang army camp in person.

The Tang army left in a hurry, at least half of the camp tents were not dismantled and taken away, but there was not a single grain at all.

At this time, a soldier rushed over and handed a dumpling to Zhu Cang: "King, this is found at the head of the Tang army." ”

Zhu Cang pinched the cake and saw that there was only a very little wheat flour, most of which were bran, wild vegetables and wheat bran, he was secretly happy in his heart, and hurriedly said: "Where is the Huotou military tent?" Take me to see it. ”

The soldiers led him to the Huotou military tent, most of which were jars and jars that could not be taken away, and there was nothing in them, Zhu Cang found a corner a little damp, and he immediately ordered: "Dig it up for me!" ”

Several soldiers dug up the soil, and inside was the leftover vegetables eaten by the Tang army, Zhu Cang looked closely, it was all cooked leaves, and immediately gave an order: "Gather the army and pursue with me!" ”

……

(Reader Penguin Exchange Group: 1623145)

vertex