After entering February, the snow in various parts of Lingzhou began to melt gradually, and the air became a little warmer.

After learning that the Hexi army had captured Longyou, Shuofang Jiedu made Cui Kuan also moved, and their eyes turned to the southern Guannei Dao states, the status of Yuanzhou was relatively special, and Guanzhong was strictly controlled, he did not dare to fight the idea of Yuanzhou, he was more concerned about Qing, Yan, and Sui, which only had hundreds of state troops stationed.

But the risk of seizing these three states is also very high, will Zhu Jun let himself go?

Cui Kuan has always been very conflicted in his heart, he sent people to Chang'an to inquire about the news, pay attention to Zhu Zhu's troop movements, as long as Zhu Jun sends troops to the Central Plains, it is the moment when he sends troops south.

In the official room, Liang Yundao, who was in the army, persuaded Cui Kuandao: "Envoy, the party people have been peeping at Lingzhou for more than ten years, but both the imperial court and the previous Shuofang festival envoys are very vigilant about the party members and do not give them any chance. ”

Cui Kuan shook his head and said, "We have discussed this issue many times, so don't say it again, so as not to have some unpleasant emotions between us." ”

"But I have received some news that there may be a military operation at the end of February, so please be vigilant."

Cui Kuan was silent for a moment and said: "So far, I won't hide it from you, at the end of February, the Shuofang army had a military operation, including the party army, but it was not aimed at Lingzhou, but to attack Qingzhou, this is my decision, I will tell you so much, don't guess anymore." ”

Liang Yundao was also a little confused, could it be that Guo Song gave him the wrong information, he didn't say anything more, bowed down, and retreated.

Cui Kuan looked at Liang Yundao's back coldly and walked away, he had long known that Liang Yundao's nephew Liang Wu was a general in the Hexi Army, and Liang Yundao himself had a very good personal relationship with Guo Song, and he went to Hexi last autumn, if it weren't for Liang Yundao being the leader of the Lingzhou Snake, he would have dismissed him a long time ago.

It seems that I should watch out for this person and not be betrayed by him........

At night, in the lobby of Liangjiabao, the heads of several major families gathered together to discuss measures to deal with the invasion of the party members, Cui Kuan may be a little dull to the party members, but these families are extremely defensive of the party members, seeing the party people gradually grow under Cui Kuan's indulgence, so that everyone has a thorn in their hearts.

The heads of the family know very well that the Dangxiang people are different from other nomadic peoples, the Dangxiang people are here to grab the land, once they seize Lingzhou, they will definitely drive out the Han people, and all their families will be wiped out.

Therefore, although the major families have contradictions with each other, they are surprisingly united in dealing with party members.

"Cui Kuan is blinded by selfishness, he wants to use the party to work for him, he believes in Ma Wencui too much, one day he will be killed by Ma Wencui!"

It was Lin Xiaoran, the head of the Lin family, who spoke, after Cui Kuan took charge, the Lin family was suppressed, and almost all of their family's generals in the army were dismissed, and Lin Xiaoran couldn't help but be indignant when he talked about Cui Kuan.

Liang Yundao waved his hand, "Everyone, let's get into the topic as soon as possible and discuss the response plan!" I would like to start by throwing bricks and stones, I suggest that we implement the joint defense plan formulated when we were guarding against the Xue Yantuo people in the past, that is the summary of our experience for many years, and it can still be applied now, what do you think? ”

"We are in favor, that plan is very mature, the key is that everyone is familiar with it, and we fully support it!" Everyone raised their hands in approval.

Liang Yundao saw that everyone agreed, so he said: "Then it's decided, everyone knows what to do, and I want to remind you that if the party people attack, it is likely that there will be no army to fight side by side with us, we have to rely on ourselves, so don't have the idea of luck, train hard!" ”

..........

As soon as the next day dawned, the various families began to act, gathering the soldiers of the fort city, distributing weapons, and the wealthy families in Shuofang Prefecture collected weapons and trained families, which were specially approved by the imperial court, and there was no way for the previous festival envoys, including Cui Kuan when he first came, he wanted to collect weapons and reorganize the family soldiers into the militia, but he was fiercely resisted from top to bottom, and Cui Kuan had no choice but to allow this phenomenon to continue to exist.

If all the family soldiers of the wealthy families gather, there are almost 10,000 or so, and every family has a training place outside the city, and all the major families are engaged in fierce military training.

At the beginning of February, the war situation in the Central Plains also underwent subtle changes, a Zhu Zhu's army entered Dengzhou, Dengzhou was recovered by Li Sheng last year, Dengzhou's garrison was not much, only more than 1,000 people, Shannan Dongdao Jiedu made Zhang Shengyun's target on Yuzhou, preparing to seize Yuzhou. He didn't expect Zhu Jun to kill from the back.

Zhang Shengyun was shocked and immediately led 20,000 troops to turn around and return to Dengzhou.

In the wilderness, thirty miles south of Nanyang, two armies encountered, and the Northern Tang army was led by the general Yan Feng, whose army numbered fifteen thousand men.

'Boom! Boom! Boom! ’

To the sound of the earth-shattering drums of war, the two armies engaged in a fierce battle.

But in just over half an hour, the Northern Tang army could not resist the attack of the Southern Tang army, the main general Yan Feng ordered to evacuate, Zhu Zhu's army was suddenly defeated, and the Southern Tang took advantage of the situation to chase and kill, and recovered Dengzhou in one go.

At this time, Wang Fazhong, the supervisor of the army, sent someone to tell Zhang Shengyun and suggested that he continue to expand the results of the battle, this suggestion was in Zhang Shengyun's arms, Li Sheng's exploits pressed on him like a mountain, and he urgently needed to use his military exploits to show that he was stronger than Li Sheng.

Zhang Shengyun couldn't bear the excitement in his heart, and waved his army to attack Ruzhou, and the Southern Tang Army was like a bamboo, capturing Ruzhou, Xuzhou, and Yuzhou in one go, and the army immediately entered Chenzhou.

Luoyang, Zhu Jun personally led an army of 100,000 to sit in Henan Mansion, and looked coldly at Zhang Shengyun attacking the city and plundering the village in the south, he admired more and more the military advisor Liu Sigu's beautiful article, using an army of 15,000 people as bait, so that Zhang Shengyun tasted the sweetness.

Zhang Sheng was so impressed by the victory of defeating the enemy that he began to expand eastward.

In the lobby, an official was reporting to Zhu Jun the latest battle situation of Zhang Shengyun in the south, "20,000 Southern Tang troops captured Ruzhou, Xuzhou, and Yuzhou, Zhang Shengyun's army entered Chenzhou, and the 10,000 troops who originally stayed in Xiangyang continued to divide their troops into various states, and now there are less than 3,000 troops left in Xiangyang. ”

Zhu Jun turned around and asked Liu Sigu, "Sir, do you think the time is ripe?" ”

Liu Sigu nodded, "You can close the net!" ”

Zhu Jun was overjoyed, and immediately shouted: "Order the cavalry to go south to Xiangyang!" ”

Zhu Zhu's army launched a blitzkrieg, 30,000 cavalry sent troops overnight, straight to Xiangyang, they swept through Dengzhou, it took only two days to attack the city of Xiangyang, the supervisor Wang Fazhong was so frightened that he abandoned the city and fled, Zhu Zhu's army occupied Xiangyang without blood, at the same time, Zhu Zhu personally led 50,000 troops into Ruzhou.

Zhang Shengyun attacked Wanqiu County in Chenzhou, but when he heard that Xiangyang was lost, he realized that he had fallen into the plan to divert the tiger from the mountain.

Zhang Shengyun led the army to retreat westward in a panic, and was surrounded by Zhu Zhu's 50,000 troops in Yuncheng.

In just a few days, Zhu Zhu's army not only recaptured Dengzhou and Xiangzhou that Li Sheng had previously captured, but also successively conquered Tangzhou, Suizhou, Yingzhou, and Jingzhou, and captured the entire Shannan East Road.

The news reached Chengdu, Chengdu was boiling, whether it was the people on the street, or the ministers of the court and the central government were overwhelmed with anger, violently criticized the court for listening to slander and self-destructing Chang'an, under the huge pressure of the government and the opposition, the son of heaven Li Shi ordered the escape of the prison Wang Fazhong and Zhang Shengyun's family to be publicly beheaded, and deposed the right minister Lu Qi.

But this time, the consequences of the loss of Shannan Dongdao were too serious, directly separating Bashu from the Jiangnan states in the east, and the anger of the government and the opposition did not disappear, and they wrote to ask the prince to ascend the throne, but Li Shi failed to shake the pot.

In the Ziwei Hall of Yong'an Palace, the crown prince Li Yi knelt on the ground and said in a deep voice: "Erchen has never had any thoughts of non-division, Erchen will persuade the ministers to calm down, and now they need to be unanimous externally, and there should be no internal chaos." ”

Li Shi's face was gloomy to the extreme, and there was a letter of advice signed by more than 500 ministers on his imperial case, imploring him to abdicate and let the crown prince ascend the throne to resist the enemy, accounting for ninety percent of the number of ministers in the entire court.

At this time, he couldn't wait to raise his sword and behead the prince in front of him, he didn't stop more than 500 ministers from signing their names, and now that the joint letter was delivered to his eyes, he pretended to say that he wanted to persuade the minister to calm down, which was extremely hypocritical.

But this is not the time to get angry, and it must be dealt with according to the established strategy, and retreat into advance.

Thinking of this, Li Shi slowly closed his eyes, and said slowly after a while: "My arrow wound has been difficult to heal, and I am unable to deal with state affairs, I can abdicate, but I only have one condition, the chief general of the Shence Army must be appointed by me to protect my safety, and I don't want to ask about other military and political affairs." ”

Li Yi was silent for a moment and said, "If my father decides to abdicate, my son is willing to agree to all the conditions proposed by my father." ”

At this moment, Li Shi's heart suddenly became murderous, but he finally waved his hand weakly, "You stand down!" ”

........

That night, Li Shi officially issued a decree announcing his abdication on the grounds of serious injury, handed over the throne to the crown prince Li Yi, and then moved to Qingcheng Palace and gave up Yong'an Palace.

Three days later, Li Yi ascended the throne with the support of hundreds of officials, respected his father Li Shi as the emperor, and kept the year name unchanged.

Li Yi immediately issued an order to summon Li Sheng into the court, but at this moment, an unfortunate news came, Li Sheng contracted miasma in Lingnan and unfortunately died.