"Taishi, why did you have to ask me to petition my father to go to Xijing in the palace just now?" On the quiet path in the palace, Zhao Kai, the king of Jia, was pacing, and said to Tong Guan who was following him worriedly, "If I go to Xijing and the war is unfavorable, then won't I make the same mistake as my eldest brother when he was in the southeast?" ”

I saw Tong Guan smile slightly, and asked instead of answering, "Your Highness, do you know why the prince has to go to Xijing?" ”

Zhao Kai immediately replied, "Of course I know that the eldest brother wants to atone for his sins and regain the favor of his father." ”

Tong Guan nodded and asked, "Then does Your Highness know why the crown prince strongly recommended Zhu Wu?" ”

Zhao Kai thought for a while, "Zhu Wubing is strong and strong, if he helps, the eldest brother will have a much greater grasp of the bandits." But unfortunately, my father did not agree. Zhao Kai said quite proudly, as if he recalled the example he came up with at that time, and although he called the prince a big brother, it could be seen that he did not respect the prince very much, and he looked like he couldn't bear to pull the prince off the throne.

"Yes," Tong Guan nodded, "but this is just the appearance, don't forget, this time Zhu Wu came to Jingduo to have the most contact with the crown prince among all the princes, including with Your Highness, if I remember correctly, Zhu Wu just had a glass of wine with you, right?" ”

Zhao Kai's face sank and nodded, as if he recalled the scene of Zhu Wu and the prince being inseparable.

Tong Guan continued, "The old minister suspects that Zhu Wu wants to use the relationship of being the prince's brother-in-law to rely on the prince to really ascend the throne in the court, and the prince also wants to use Zhu Wu to increase his capital, there must have been some kind of agreement between them, and this Xijing bandit suppression is the first step for the prince to use Zhu Wu to revitalize the prince's banner, and once the prince and Zhu Wu successfully exterminate the Fangshan bandits, the prince can not only wash away the shame of the southeast in one fell swoop, but also show the world that he has Zhu Wu's support. Therefore, we must not let him achieve his goal! ”

Zhao Kai suddenly realized, nodded again and again to Tong Guan, "Taishi is really far-sighted!" ”

Tong Guan sighed and said, "Alas, if you talk about it, the current situation is caused by the old man's mistake that day, the reason why the old man tried his best to promote the marriage with Zhu Wu that day was that he wanted to use this to fight the prince, and second, the old man overestimated Zhu Wu, thinking that Zhu Wu was also as determined to be a feudal town as Zheng Linfeng, but he didn't expect that this Zhu Wu was much smarter than that Zheng Linfeng, and knew that the result of the long-term confrontation with the court would be inevitable, In the blink of an eye, he changed from the sworn enemy of the court to the real son-in-law of the saint, and became the real horse master of the Great Song Dynasty, as a result, the old man made a calculation, but he made a dowry for the prince, and gave him a powerful 'brother-in-law' for nothing, the old man is sorry for Your Royal Highness, and I am sorry for the expectations of the mother, the old man is ashamed! ”

Zhao Kai hurriedly said, "No, no, no, don't say that, Taishi, how does Taishi treat Xiao Wang, Xiao Wang has a number in his heart!" ”

Tong Guan glanced at Zhao Kai gratefully and continued, "The old man wants to make up for his mistakes, so the old man wants His Royal Highness to go to Xijing with the old man to suppress the bandits, and the bandits will not only make the prince's calculations fail, but also greatly add points to His Royal Highness in the hearts of the saints and the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty!" ”

Zhao Kai hurriedly pricked up his ears to listen, lest he leave a word,

"As for the chances of winning this battle, Your Highness doesn't need to worry at all, this time there is a world of difference from the last time when the southeast suppressed bandits. When Zhu Wu occupied more than a dozen states on two roads during the southeast bandits, hundreds of thousands of thieves in his hands, and the southeast was the granary of my Great Song Dynasty, Zhu Wu did not need to worry about the supply of grain and grass at all. On the other hand, the old man, the southeast army led by him was just a rabble, and coupled with the arrogance of the prince, the defeat of the southeast was expected. But this time, let's go to Xijing to suppress the bandits, Wang Qing and other Fangshan thieves have only been in trouble for two months, and they have only occupied two states and one capital, the foundation is not stable, there is a lack of money and food, and the thief army in their hands is only tens of thousands. And the old man has been approved by the saint, and he can directly mobilize the elite 60,000 troops of the Western Army, plus the 50,000 officers and troops in Xijing, the total strength is several times that of the thief army, the old man is definitely confident enough to calm the thief rebellion, His Royal Highness only needs to wait patiently for the day when he will go to the palace with the old man to receive the reward! ”

Zhao Kai was overjoyed when he heard this, and finally put his heart back into his stomach completely, he thought quickly for a moment and said to Tong Guan, "The grace of the master Xiao Wang will be remembered in his heart!" In the future, it will be reciprocated! ”

Tong Guan was waiting for King Jia's words, "Your Highness, please rest assured, the old minister will also do his best to assist His Highness!" ”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On February 10, King Jia and Tong Guan left Tokyo and rushed to the front line in Xijing.

On February 15, King Jia and Tong Guan arrived at the front line in Tokyo, and joined the 60,000 Western Army that had received orders to arrive on schedule, until the beginning of March, after requisitioning the Song army in the surrounding states and counties, Tong Guan reorganized the 100,000 Song Army and led the army to the periphery of Xijing, recovering Xijing, and exterminating the Fangshan bandits.

At the beginning of the war, Tong Guan was full of confidence, thinking that the war would end soon, but as the war progressed, he gradually couldn't laugh anymore, and the bravery shown by the Fangshan thieves was completely beyond his expectations.

And to his surprise, there was more than this, all kinds of previous information showed that the Fangshan thieves were expanding too fast, and their weapons and equipment were extremely scarce, and even the most ordinary swords could not be used by each person, but after several days of fighting, Tong Guan found that this information was completely wrong! Fangshan thieves not only do not lack weapons, but even all kinds of offensive and defensive weapons are also complete, and from the captured weapons, their weapons materials and workmanship are extremely sophisticated, at first glance, they are from a skilled weapons workshop, and the quality is even better than the standard weapons of the Great Song Dynasty soldiers, and this also proves that the weapons in their hands are definitely not from the captured Great Song Dynasty weapons.

Tong Guan was really puzzled, since they were not using captured Great Song weapons? Isn't it that they will build their own weapons? But even if they could build it, how could they have created so many weapons that looked like they had been carefully crafted in just a few days?!

What shocked Tong Guan even more was that there were still firearms in the hands of the Fangshan thieves! When the siege of Xijing was carried out on the fifth day, a large number of round things suddenly flew out of the Xijing City, and the soldiers of the Great Song Army who attacked the city were horrified to find that those were actually firearms, and those firearms exploded as soon as they landed.

How could the Fangshan thieves have firearms?! At first, Tong Guan thought that these firearms were firearms in the hands of the former Xijing defenders captured after the Fangshan bandits captured Xijing, but this guess was soon proved to be wrong, because the firearms used by the Fangshan bandits were obviously much more powerful than the firearms currently used by the Song army, and at the same time, there were some firearms in these firearms that the Song army had never equipped at all.

Tong Guan couldn't help but have a big question, aren't the Fangshan thieves a group of grass bandits? How could they make these powerful firearms? This can't be! But if they didn't make it themselves, where did they get it?

These two questions really made Tong Guan puzzled, and then through the interrogation of some captured Fangshan thieves, the information interrogated was even more confusing, it turned out that these Fangshan thieves said that they were originally short of weapons, and they had never seen any firearms, but not long after the thieves' army broke through Xijing, Wang Qing conjured up a large number of weapons like a trick, including those powerful firearms, no one knows how Wang Qing did it, In this regard, the Fangshan thief Kou army even had a rumor that Wang Qing would know magic and demon techniques, and these weapons and firearms were conjured up by him!

Of course, Tong Guan doesn't believe in Wang Qinghui's nonsense, but it is undeniable that the situation of suppressing bandits in Xijing has suddenly become severe!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Is the Fangshan army short of weapons? The answer, of course, is yes, at least until February, the Fangshan army was extremely short of weapons.

So does the Fangshan Army make firearms? The answer, of course, is no, don't say that it is a firearm, and in the past few days, there were not even a few people in the Fangshan army who had seen real firearms.

That's strange, where did the weapons and firearms in Fang Shanjun's hands come from?

There is only one answer, who else can there be, of course, it is given by Zheng Fei.

It turned out that Zheng Fei was surprised when he was ordered by Tong Guan to lead 70,000 Western Army to conquer Wang Qing, the strength of the Western Army Zheng Fei was very clear, Tong Guan got the help of the Western Army, I was afraid that Wang Qing would hang, and if Wang Qing was exterminated by the imperial court, he would be empty and happy, so Zheng Fei thought about it and decided to secretly "pull" Wang Qing, the longer Wang Qing supported it, the better it would be for him!

Zheng Fei thought about it, and immediately transferred 5,000 weapons and 500 firearms, and secretly delivered these weapons and firearms to Xijing in batches through the caravan on Jingdong Road.

And Wang Qing was even more surprised when he heard that these things were actually given to him by Zheng Linfeng, such as today's heroes, who doesn't know the names of "Liangshan Zheng Linfeng" and "Qishan Zhu Wu"?

These two started from the king of Zhanshan and eventually became the lord of the feudal town, they are simply the idols in the hearts of all the heroes in the world, Wang Qing is no exception, he is inspired by the development of Liangshan and Qishan, thinking that since Zheng Linfeng and Zhu Wu can succeed, why can't I Wang Qing?!

Zheng Fei asked people to tell Wang Qing, we are all heroes in the green forest, I want to help you, and I don't want you to give anything in return!

Wang Qing expressed his deep gratitude to Zheng Fei for his assistance, and fully accepted Zheng Fei's condition, that is, he would never reveal the origin of these weapons and firearms to anyone!

In this way, the 5,000 weapons greatly improved the strength of the Fangshan army, and the 500 firearms also greatly deterred the Song army, and the situation in Xijing became more confusing with Zheng Fei's intervention.