And here on the northwest border, things are not going well. Li Hongyi and King Xiou confronted each other in Guangwu County for more than half a month, and finally the battle began. Xi'ou pressed all his troops, confronted Li Hongyi, and started a duel. After three days of fierce fighting, Xiou won, Guangwu County was broken, and Li Hongyi led his troops to retreat to Jincheng.

Li Hongyi listened to his subordinates count the casualties, and he was angry and blamed himself. When there were no outsiders in private, he pulled his hair and said to his younger brother with a sad face: "I'm really useless, I missed the fighter plane and fell in love with them." Now that I've lost Guangwu, what can I do now? ”

"It's just a failure." Li Honghui comforted, "Victory or defeat is a common thing in soldiers, and don't take it too seriously." Big brother, as the commander-in-chief, you can't mess with yourself at this time. ”

Li Hongyi nodded and asked, "What should I do now?" ”

"Fortunately, the casualties are not too many, and we can regroup." Li Honghui analyzed, "Xiou continues to be stationed outside the city again, and it doesn't seem to plan to attack the city yet." Just give us time to recuperate. ”

"Why doesn't Xiou go all out and take Jincheng again? Ouyang Zhenyu is so kind to give us time to rest? Li Hongyi asked.

"This question...... Good question. Li Honghui said in his heart, after this failure, the eldest brother has also begun to learn to use his brain.

Li Hongyi knocked Li Honghui's head, "Hey, be serious, have you thought of anything?" ”

"Not yet." Li Honghui shook his head and sighed, saying in his heart that it would be good if Shao An was here.

The news of the defeat soon reached the capital, and when the emperor saw the battle report, he was naturally furious. The emperor immediately asked Duke Chen to pass Shao An to see him. Shao An came to the Palace of Nourishing Hearts, and after reading the military report, he was quite calm. He calmly returned the fold to the imperial table and said: "The defeat of Guangwu is hard for Li Hongyi to blame. However, the casualty data reported by the minister shows that the main force of our army is still there, and it can still fight and regain the lost territory. ”

"I don't care about the gains and losses of Guangwu County. The first battle is unfavorable, and it will inevitably affect the morale of the army, how is this good? The emperor said coldly, and said in his heart that he still expected Li Hongyi to expand the territory, but this turned out to be good, but before the territory was opened, he lost the territory first.

This defeat disrupted all the emperor's plans. The emperor was very worried, with Li Hongyi's current soldiers and horses, it was enough to recapture Guangwu County, but it was far from enough to occupy Xining.

Shao An didn't know the emperor's small calculations at this time, but felt that the emperor's reaction was a bit excessive. When he and his brother went out with the emperor, it was not the first defeat, and the emperor didn't say anything back then. And now, could it be that the saint is old in the last year, and he has begun to rush for quick success?

Shao An persuaded: "Weichen thinks that Li Hongyi should take it slowly at this time, look for Xi'ou's omissions, and attack again." ”

"Gradually, I don't have that much time and money to spend with Xiou." The emperor waved his hand irritably, "That's it, I know, you go down." ”

"The minister retired." After Shao An saluted, he left. Shao An was already disheartened, and he found that the contradictions between him and the emperor were becoming more and more acute. And the emperor was no longer willing to listen to Shao An's advice, and even felt that Shao An was shielding Li Hongyi. It seems that the disagreement between the monarch and the minister is inevitable.

Shao An was depressed, and returned to Zhongshu Province with a blank face, only to find that the twists and turns of Henan Mansion had come up again. Didn't you let them dispose of it themselves? Shao An opened the note angrily and found that it was the excerpt of Henan Zhaofu Yin's impeachment of Feng Che. This is good, the two of them finally pinched up.

Shao An called Liu Ruqing, took the fold and said, "Send this to the emperor." ”

Liu Ruqing had already seen Zhao Fuyin's impeachment, and he was worried: "After the emperor sees it, he won't really believe Zhao Fuyin's words." Sir, don't you wait for Feng Che's defense? ”

Generally speaking, if the two fight, in order to ensure that the saint does not have a preconceived idea, the Zhongshu Province will generally present the two sides to the emperor together. But Feng Che, Shao An shook his head and smiled: "With Feng Zhiyuan's temperament, he will not be able to defend himself." ”

"Then Lord Feng is very disadvantaged?" Liu Ruqing is still devoted to Feng Che, and she is really afraid that he will lose her official position because of this.

"Don't worry, the emperor is not a person who listens to and believes partially. Feng Zhiyuan's character, the emperor still understands. Shao An soothed, "This official estimates that the Holy Lord will send a messenger to investigate and adjust in person." ”

"I heard that Yingzhou has talents, and many of the big families there are involved with the officials of the capital." Liu Ruqing said, "If the Qin Messenger sent happens to be involved with the big family and helps Zhao Fuyin, what is good?" ”

"The court will take these issues into account. However, when Feng Che was an official in Beijing, he offended many people, and it was quite difficult to find a truly neutral one. Shao An touched his chin and thought about it, it is impossible to send people from the six departments, Pei Shaojun of Dali Temple has a good relationship with Feng Che, but this is biased towards Feng Che. Do you want to send Taichang Temple, Guanglu Temple, Taifu Temple and others? Are those gray-haired old men really capable of doing good errands?

※※※※※

Gonggong Chen gently walked into the Heart Nourishing Palace, and put a stack of folds that had just been sent by Zhongshu Province on the imperial case. The emperor flipped through it casually and saw the note of impeachment against Feng Che. The emperor shook his head and said angrily: "These current officials impeach each other whenever there is a contradiction, are they idle when I am idle?" Feng Zhiyuan is too upright, but he still does things in a measured manner. The twists and turns of Henan Mansion are obviously biased. ”

Gonggong Chen echoed on the side: "Lord Feng is a good official, a clean official, and a wise saint, and he can see through the truth at a glance. ...... this twist and turn?"

"I don't want to stop it now, I'm not in the mood to break their lawsuit now." The emperor has been paying close attention to the northwest recently, and then turned over the folds piled up on the table, and asked Chen Gonggong, "Huai'en, has Li Hongyi made an excerpt?" ”

"Nope." Chen Gonggong said honestly, "In the northwest, there has been no news recently. ”

The emperor pinched his fingers and calculated, and said, "It's the sixth day, and there is no news yet?" No, I can't wait. You go, spread the word to Song Qi and Song Yi's father and son, come to see me. ”

"Yes." Gonggong Chen didn't dare to go far, so he had to take the order, he felt that calling the two generals of the Song family at this time must have something to do with the unfavorable war in the northwest.

Song Qi and Song Yi father and son soon arrived, and they followed behind the emperor and studied in front of the map for a long time. The old general Song touched his gray beard and said slowly: "The loss of Guangwu County this time is indeed a command mistake by General Li. He should take advantage of Xiou's unstable foothold to attack first, instead of shrinking in the city and being passively beaten. ”

The emperor also agreed with Song Qi's opinion, nodded and said, "It's too conservative." And now Li Hongyi is hiding in Jincheng again. I thought that Xiou was deliberately delaying time this time, and I don't know what I was waiting for. ”

Song Yi remembered Li Hongyi's feat of going deep behind enemy lines. After thinking about it for a while, he said cautiously: "The last general thinks that General Li is not a cowardly person, and there may be some reason why he did this." ”

"When you meet on a narrow road, the brave wins, and sometimes you have to fight hard." Song Qi educated his son, "General Li should immediately send troops at this time to recapture Guangwu." ”

"I don't just hope that they can recapture Guangwu, I also hope that Li Hongyi can take this ......place," the emperor stepped forward and pointed to the large area of Xining, "If we can take this place, when Xi'ou wants to invade the territory again in the future, there will be a large area of land here separated by a natural barrier." And Guangwu, Jincheng, Yongjing...... These counties in the northwest will no longer be frequently invaded by Xiou. ”

"The emperor is far-sighted, and the last general is admired." Song Qi and Song Yi said in unison. Only then did they know the true purpose of the Emperor's battle. No wonder the defeated emperor was so angry this time, it turned out that there was such a layer.

"This is a military secret, and only Li Hongyi and your father and son know about it." The emperor advised, "Don't leak secrets until the last moment." Even Shao Xiang can't be easily revealed. ”

Even Shao An is guarding against it, has the prime minister fallen out of favor? Song Qi and Song Yi were stunned for a moment, and then hurriedly promised: "The last general will not dare to leak the secret, please rest assured." ”

※※※※※

On the northwest border, the desert is lonely, the sun sets over the long river, and the vicissitudes of life are full of vicissitudes. Years of war have left the region devastated and impoverished, but the local army here still holds on, defending the last line of defense in the northwest.

Li Hongyi took Li Honghui to climb the city tower, and the brothers stood on it and looked into the distance, only to see that the king of Xiou commanded a million troops, and the soldiers came to the city, and surrounded the Jincheng tightly.

Li Hongyi looked anxiously at the army under the city, and said eagerly: "Why don't we rush out." ”

Li Honghui shook his head and said: "The enemy soldiers are twice as many as us, and they are ready to fight, so they are fully prepared. It's impossible for us to want a sneak attack. ”

"Now that our army's morale has been chaotic, if it drags on, where will the fighting spirit remain?" Li Hongyi said melancholy, "Last time, it was because we dragged it around, and let Xi'ou seize the opportunity in vain." Are we going to repeat the same mistakes this time? ”

"Xi'ou is so procrastinating, it's not like their previous style." Li Honghui still analyzed very cautiously, "If something goes wrong, there must be a demon." It is more appropriate for our army not to attack rashly. ”

"If they want to procrastinate, we should not give them time to procrastinate." Li Hongyi said, "We immediately organized elite soldiers and strong generals to go out of the city to fight with them." ”

After hearing this, Li Honghui immediately poured cold water and said: "Last time, we also had a hard fight with them, and we still had the city to protect, and they were all defeated. This time, our army is under-strengthened, and if the general wants to go out of the city to fight a tough battle, I am afraid that the chances of victory are not great. ”

Li Hongyi walked around the city irritably, and said angrily: "Do you want to wait like this? ”

Li Honghui nodded helplessly, he began to think again, if it was Shao An, what would he do at this time?

At this time, the soldiers came up to report that the capital had come to the will. Li Hongyi still didn't know why, but Li Honghui knew that it must be the emperor who saw that they had been shrinking into the city and did not send troops, so he was in a hurry to give the order to attack. The two hurried down the tower and came to the commander's camp, where they saw that the minister who had been waiting for the decree for a long time.

Seeing this, Li Honghui greeted him with a very good look, and hurriedly said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I've kept you waiting." ”

"It's okay, the two generals have worked hard." That Lord Qincha didn't rely on his identity as a substitute for the Heavenly Patrol to bully others, and his attitude was very amiable.

Li Hongyi and Li Honghui were also relieved at this time. Fortunately, he was wise today, and he did not let Li Hongyi bring a supervisor of the army these times, which shows that the emperor still trusts him very much.

"Your Excellency has worked hard all the way." Li Honghui said politely, "Please rest for a while, and we will immediately go to prepare the incense case to receive the order." ”

So Li Hongyi raised his tent and summoned all the generals to listen to the hadith.

The generals knelt on the ground nervously to accept the order, really afraid that the emperor would directly say something like "Ling'er and others will attack Xiou immediately". Fortunately, this time the emperor did not give a stern order to go to war, but only implicitly urged to supervise the war. After listening to the decree, Li Hongyi accepted the decree with a heavy face. The emperor was in a hurry, and he was also in a hurry, but Xiou besieged Jincheng to death, but he didn't attack the city.

After reading out the will, the minister continued to say amiably: "The emperor knows the difficulties of the generals, but the generals should also be considerate of the difficulties of the imperial court. If such a confrontation continues, it will consume a huge amount of military resources, grain and grass. ”

Li Hongyi also had no choice but to say: "We also know the difficulties of the saints. Please send a message to the emperor, the last general must hurry up and start the war this morning. ”

The minister arched his hand and said with a smile: "The lower official must bring General Li's words, and he will leave." ”

Everyone went out in crowds, but they didn't expect it to rain heavily. Xu Lei laughed, "This weather is really changeable, it seems that the day is going to keep guests, why don't you rest for one night and leave tomorrow morning?" ”

Li Hongyi also persuaded: "Yes, the road is slippery on rainy days, and adults are in a hurry, so don't be in a hurry." ”

"It's fine." Qin Cha sent a mouth, "It's been raining recently, and I heard that Yingzhou, Hebei Province, almost broke the embankment." ”

"It doesn't usually rain much here in Jincheng, but I don't know what's going on this year, but the rain is several times more than in previous years." A local guard in Jincheng said that he has been stationed here for a long time and knows the weather here best.

"More rain this year than usual?" Li Honghui suddenly asked.

The general didn't know what Li Honghui was suddenly crazy, so he had to nod blankly.

Li Honghui pinched his fingers and counted the days, "It's the end of July now, and it's going to be August soon." ”

"yes." Li Hongyi was also very strange and asked, "What's wrong?" ”

Li Honghui remembered that a certain book he had read before said that there had been a flood in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, and the time happened to be in August and September. He looked at his eldest brother and said firmly: "I think, I know what Xiou is waiting for." ”