Dizhou, Hebei Province, here was the bridgehead of Guo Song to support Li Na, the north bank of the Yellow River set up a large number of temporary tent warehouses in the area of Zhuhe County, used to hoard money and grain materials, at this time the Yellow River has thawed, the river surface is full of floating ice from the middle and upper reaches, this is the Yellow River Lingxun, at this time the ships can not cross the river, only after half a month, Lingxun completely disappears, the river can be navigable normally.

Zhu Zhu also seized this time to attack Li Na in a big way, and the Jin army in Hebei could not cross the river to the south to support, this was their opportunity, but Zhu Zhu or Liu Sigu's thinking was still a little narrow, and they ignored the most critical point.

On the sea north of Penglai County, Dengzhou, two hundred large ships are coming from the distant sea, gradually approaching the port of Penglai County.

On the bow deck of the head of the big ship, stood Yang Meng, the deputy general of the Jin army of Hebei, this time he led 30,000 troops to Dengzhou to join Li Bing in the north, although the Yellow River could not be sailed, but the sea could, they set off from Hekou Port, directly crossed the Bohai Sea, and arrived at Dengzhou Port a few days later.

Dengzhou Port was the starting point of the Great Sui Navy when Emperor Yang of Sui attacked Goguryeo, a large number of naval wharves were built here with bluestone, and after continuous repair of the Tang Dynasty, the largest military port of the Tang Dynasty was formed in the Tianbao period, but unfortunately after the rebellion of An Lushan, the imperial court was unable to maintain the naval army, many military ships were bought by merchants and converted into merchant ships, and in the later period of Emperor Daizong, there was no military ship in Dengzhou.

Li Zhengji, Li Na and his son are not interested in expanding the naval army, on the one hand, the demand is not large, on the other hand, building the naval army requires a lot of money and food, Li Zheng has difficulty maintaining the army, where is the spare money to build warships?

It is also for this reason that most of the merchant ships docked on the Dengzhou wharf, but in recent years, Li Na has levied higher and higher taxes, especially for seamen, which are taxed up to 30% of the value of the goods, and the maritime merchants cannot afford it anyway, so they have turned to Hekou Port, and the tax at Hekou Port is only half of it, which is of course very popular with merchants.

At this time, the port of Dengzhou was deserted, there was no ship in sight, an old man who managed the port slowly came out of a room, carrying an iron teapot in his hand, he was going to pour some water to make tea, he looked up, and suddenly saw that the sea was overwhelming the big ship, the old man was stunned, for a while, he rubbed his eyes, it was not a phantom at sea, it was a real big ship, there were hundreds of them.

"It's amazing!" The old man threw away the teapot and ran to a bell tower.

After a while, a heavy bell rang out over the harbor, 'Dang! While! While! ’

The bell rang very quickly, this was the bell of the alarm, alerting Penglai County, a few miles away, that danger was coming.

In fact, this reminder is meaningless, there is no regular army in Dengzhou, only 500 soldiers of the local militia group, responsible for the opening of the city gates in Dengzhou counties and the maintenance of order in the city.

There are four counties in Dengzhou, as a state rule, there are two hundred militia soldiers in Penglai County, and when the bell of the port rang, soldiers immediately ran to inform the assassin and the county order.

Not long after, the assassin Han Baoyi and the county commander Zhou Qian rushed to the head of the north city, and the situation of the harbor could be seen clearly from the far away on the head of the north city, only to see that the port was full of big ships, and there were many sea ships waiting to dock in the bay, and a team of soldiers like ants got down from the big boat, which made the head of the thorn Han Baoyi gasp.

"Envoy, this is ..... Where is the army? ”

The county commander Zhou Qian asked nervously, "Could it be Zhu Tao or Silla's army?" ”

Han Baoyi shook his head, "They don't have so many ships, these troops can only be Jin troops, coming from Hekou Port." ”

Hearing that it was the Jin army, the county commander Zhou Qian breathed a sigh of relief, he was afraid that it was the army of Liaodong or Silla, and those troops would definitely burn and loot when they came, and the Jin army was strictly disciplined, so there was no need to worry too much.

"I think they're probably here to support the lord!" Han Baoyi said slowly.

Zhou Qian didn't have an interface, and he had a gut feeling that the Jin army was not necessarily here to support Li Na.

Although Han Baoyi said that he was here to support the lord, he also had a little worry in his eyes, if it was to support the lord, of course it would be good, but if not?

But at this time, they had no choice, Han Baoyi immediately ordered the city gate to be opened, and he took the county order Zhou Qian to the dock to visit the commander of the Jin army.

The 30,000 army quickly disembarked and quickly assembled on the shore, Yang Meng's task this time was not urgent, he wanted to join Li Bing's army and form a new army, with Li Bing as the main general and Yang Meng as the deputy general, leading the 70,000 army to destroy the Qi State.

This is Guo Song's killing three birds with one stone, taking advantage of Zhu Zhu's opportunity to attack Li Na this time, to destroy Yao Shun in Quanzhou, Gaoyou in Huaixi and Li Na in Qi in one fell swoop.

At this time, a soldier ran to report: "General, the magistrate of Dengzhou asks to see you!" ”

Yang Meng looked over and saw two civil officials standing more than a dozen steps away, the leader was forty or fifty years old, of medium stature, with a handful of goatees, a pair of triangular eyes that were quite treacherous, and the one behind him was a little younger, with dark skin and a short and fat body, looking like a shopkeeper.

"I'm Yang Meng, the general of the Jin Army, what do you two do?"

The leading official hurriedly stepped forward and bowed, "In Xia Han Baoyi, who is currently serving as the assassin of Dengzhou, and behind him is Zhou Qian, the county commander of Penglai County, who is here to meet the general!" ”

Yang Meng smiled and said: "You don't have to worry, the Jin army has always had strict military discipline and will not disturb the people, we will camp outside the city and not enter the county seat." ”

Han Baoyi cautiously probed: "I heard that the King of Qi and the King of Jin have reached an agreement, but the general is here to support the King of Qi?" ”

Yang Meng said lightly: "His Royal Highness the King of Jin will not allow Zhu Zhu to occupy the Qi State, of course Zhu Zhu is our enemy!" ”

Han Baoyi breathed a sigh of relief, "In this way, I will rest assured, I will report to King Qi immediately!" ”

Yang Meng waved his hand, "Please keep it secret for the time being, according to our intelligence, the King of Qi has Zhu Zhu's spies around him, if Zhu Zhu learns, it will seriously affect our plan to sneak attack the enemy." ”

"Thanks to the general for reminding me, I almost made a mistake."

At this time, the county commander Zhou Qian said: "Does the general need food?" ”

"I appreciate the kindness of Zhou County's order, we have grain and grass materials, and we don't need food for the time being."

Zhou Qian thought for a while and said: "There are still hundreds of loads of dried fish in the warehouse, even if it is Penglai County's intention, give the brothers a little more food." ”

Yang Meng hesitated, then smiled happily: "Dried fish is okay, then thank you two!" ”

.........

Zhou Qian returned to the county government and immediately sent someone to find his brother, his brother was called Zhou Xizhu, short and fat, dark skin, and looked very similar to his brother Zhou Qian.

The two brothers are the big family of Dengzhou Huang County, at present, Zhou Xizhu opened a Penglai restaurant in Penglai County, and at the same time was in charge of Zhou's trading house, mainly trading with Silla, the Zhou family also has a few sea ships, and like other Dengzhou maritime merchants, several sea ships are moored in Hekou Port.

"Brother, I heard that the Jin army has entered the port?" Zhou Xizhu shouted when he saw Zhou Qian.

"You can't be quiet!" Zhou Qian glared at his brother fiercely.

Zhou Xizhu didn't dare to say anything, and Zhou Qian said: "Just now, Han Tingshi and I went to visit the chief general of the Jin army, and the chief general of the Jin army said that the king of Jin will not allow Zhu Jun to occupy the Qi country, it sounds like he is here to aid the king of Qi, but I feel that it is not so simple." ”

Zhou Xizhu was taken aback, "Brother is saying that King Jin has ambitions for Qi State?" ”

Zhou Qian nodded slowly, "There is a mystery in the words of this Jin army commander, he just said that Zhu Zhu was not allowed to occupy the Qi country, but he did not say that he was here to aid the King of Qi, if the King of Jin wants to occupy the Qi country, Zhu Zhu is also not allowed to get involved, is this the truth?" ”

"Brother has a point, what does Han Tingshi think?"

"He seems to believe it, I think this is my chance!"

Zhou Qian said in a low voice: "The chief general of the Jin army must not know that Han Baoyi's sister is Li Na's partial concubine, and he doesn't know that Han Baoyi became the assassin of Dengzhou because of his sister's nepotism, we have to tell this information to the chief general of the Jin army." ”

Zhou Xizhu understood, "Brother asked me to deliver the letter?" ”

Zhou Qian shook his head, "We have to find a way to abolish Han Baoyi's two letter eagles as soon as possible, I know Han Baoyi, he will definitely write to tell Li Na that there is no time left, you go to action immediately." ”

Zhou Qian told his brother a few words, Zhou Xizhu nodded again and again, turned around and hurried away.

Zhou Qian went to the warehouse, and he began to organize the people and carts, preparing to send 500 loads of dried fish to the Jin army.

.........

Han Baoyi also doubted the motive of the Jin army to come to Dengzhou, although Qi and Jin had reached a cooperation agreement, but if the Jin army was going to land in Dengzhou, the lord would definitely tell him in advance, but he didn't know anything, so Han Baoyi suspected that the agreement between Qi and Jin did not include the Jin army landing in Dengzhou.

Although Han Baoyi promised to keep it secret for Yang Meng, after he returned to the state office, he wrote an eagle letter and sent someone to find the eagle slave.

After a while, the eagle slave hurried to the state office, and he knelt down and saluted: "See the envoy!"

Han Baoyi handed him the eagle letter, "You send this letter to Qizhou immediately, the letter is very important, don't waste time." ”

"The villain obeys!" Eagle Slave took the letterbox, turned and left.

Li Na generally trains the letter eagle to deliver letters, basically the capital of each state in the territory of Qi has an eagle tower, the eagle tower is generally on the city wall, Penglai County is no exception, the eagle tower is located in the northeast corner of the city wall, can overlook the sea, is the highest building in the county.

The eagle slave returned to the eagle tower, but found that the door was not closed, he was a little strange, he obviously closed the door! He had just entered the Eagle Tower when a man in black covered his mouth from behind the door, and a dagger was placed around his neck.

"If you dare to scream, I will kill you with a knife!"