In fact, Wu Meng would send the general report to Yuanzhou every day, and Zhao Zhihai had already known about the recovery of the two counties.

However, he still set up a banquet today in order to boost the morale and pessimism of the whole army caused by the successive military defeats.

At the banquet, some of the leading people in the former state capital were quite happy when they saw that the bigger people were quite happy today, so they stepped forward to congratulate them. And the generals in the army also left their seats one after another, and continued to toast to the general. Zhao Zhihai's side instantly surrounded many people.

At this time, he was like a yellow-mouthed child, completely ignoring the left and right eyes, just picking up the wine bottle on the table again and again in a demented manner, and putting it down again and again.

"Meson, you've drunk too much. It's going to hurt your body. ”

Jie Yuan looked up at Zhu Lihua, who was admonishing him, and the smile on his face became thicker and thicker, making his face wrinkled and dazzling like a chrysanthemum.

He raised his hand and motioned for Lihua to sit beside him, and at the same time, like Lihua was a child, he raised his arm and kept stroking Lihua's hair.

He understands that his teacher's lifelong wish is to be able to show what he has learned and display his ambitions, but he is already dying of old age and can only pin his hopes on himself.

Therefore, no matter how big or small the achievements you have achieved, you will make Meson proud and proud.

He put his head close to Jieyuan's side, so that Jieyuan could stroke himself more conveniently, and at the same time, he said softly to Jieyuan: "Teacher, you are drunk, go back and rest first." ”

Feeling that Jieyuan had stopped answering for a long time, Zhu Lihua turned his head and found that the old man had fallen asleep, so he ordered the attendants standing aside to send Jieyuan home.

After the arrangements were made, he suddenly felt several eyes looking at him at the same time, so he turned his head to look at those eyes one by one, only to see the first person looking at him and smiling softly, Zhu Lihua hurriedly prepared to get up and salute, but the man shook his head slightly, and then turned his head to greet the officials who came to toast around.

Looking down with his eyes, he saw the sincere and excited eyes of Wu Meng and Xie Yun again, at this time, Wu Meng had just toasted Zhao Zhihai, so he took the wine bottle from the hand of the attendant, and Xie Yun raised the wine bottle to Lu Lihua together.

Lihua smiled slightly, and immediately picked up the wine bottle on the table in front of him with both hands and drank it with the person who respected Yao.

In Xie Yun's eyes, Zhu Lihua saw a full of respect, but in Wu Meng's eyes, there were some other things mixed in except for a hint of Xie Xian.

On that day, after Wu Meng took over the military power of Lihua and drove him out of the camp, he also regretted it a little. But as soon as he thought of the brothers who died tragically outside the territory, he also hated Zhu Lihua a little, thinking about the appearance of Zhu Lihua kneeling in front of him to intercede for those rebels, so that Wu Meng still can't let go.

Subsequently, when leading the troops to attack the top of the mountain, after a bloody battle, I saw that the soldiers on the mountain had reached the end of the crossbow, but the Qingyang reinforcements suddenly rushed to the east side of the mountain at this time, and happened to break through from the area where Lihua was deployed, and tore a big hole in the defense line, and the rest of the Rong were able to escape.

Wu Meng realized that there was no master in the Lihua army, and there were more or less reasons for letting the Rong soldiers break through, and then saw that Lihua returned to the Chinese army alone, so he did not embarrass him again.

In the following days, Wu Meng and Xie Yun divided their troops into two routes, and Xie Yun led the headquarters and the men and horses of Lihua with a total of 9,000 to attack Qingshui County.

There were less than 5,000 soldiers who fled back to the county seat, but these 5,000 men and horses had quietly abandoned the city and fled north three days after Xie Yun attacked the city.

After Wu Meng led 10,000 soldiers and horses to Qingyang County, there was no death battle as he expected, but what appeared in the eyes of the Qin army was an empty city without military defense.

After the recovery of the two counties, Wu Meng was also very happy, and every day in addition to listening to the news of the return of the scouts in the north, he summoned the main generals in the army to make arrangements for the next deployment.

During these days, Wu Meng also changed his opinion of Zhu Lihua, and he also knew that if it were not for Zhu Lihua's planning, he would not have achieved such a great result so smoothly this time.

And Lu Lihua has no experience of fleeing outside the territory, and it is understandable to intercede for the rebels. Therefore, he restored the military power of Zhu Lihua and summoned him to discuss the matter.

When he saw Lihua again, Wu Meng was a little embarrassed, because it was after he deprived Lihua of his military power that day, which caused the east side to be broken through when the mountain was besieged, and he once boasted that the Qingyang soldiers were coming, and he happened to surround the point to send reinforcements, but unfortunately in the face of reality, the Haikou he once boasted about became an empty talk.

However, as if nothing had happened, Zhu Lihua continued to express his views to Wu Meng on the current military deployment as before. and repeatedly dissuaded Wu Meng from wanting to return the land distributed by the Rong people to the people of Buyi to the families of the fleeing nobles and the slain nobles.

For this reason, he confronted Wu Meng in court, bluntly saying that if he did so, he would lose the hard-won stability of the two counties.

But in the end, Wu Meng still gave the order to return the land. It's not because Wu Meng deliberately went against Lihua, but because this is a national policy, and after recovering the two counties, the land will naturally be recovered, and the land will naturally be returned to the original owner.

Fortunately, it was already winter at this time, and the land was not cultivated, so for the people, the food and goods distributed to them during the Rong people could still provide them with food and goods for the winter.

Since the official family has taken away the land again, then take it away, as long as you don't starve to death, as for what will happen to Ming Chun, who cares.

After drinking the wine in the bottle, he lowered his head and sighed secretly, it seems that Wu Meng has never been able to let go of his knot. If Wu Meng listened to his words, it would be much easier to fight those rebels in the future, but whether it was Wang Min and Wu Meng, what they did could only push the rebels farther and farther.

As soon as he lowered his head, Zhu Lihua suddenly felt that someone seemed to be spying on him, but he often stared at him for a moment before looking away.

If it weren't for the fact that Lu Lihua was bowing his head and contemplating at this moment, he would not have been able to detect this undetectable movement.

After feeling that he was being stared at again, Zhu Lihua suddenly looked up at the source of his gaze, but saw that the person was slightly stunned, and actually looked at Zhu Lihua and laughed. It's just that this smile is not different from Wu Meng and Xie Yun, but it looks a little cold.

For that person, he saw it for the first time after returning to Yuanzhou recently, but the person's name was like thunder.

Linghu Wang Min.

But whoever is in the army, who doesn't know who doesn't know this Zhao Zhihai's right-hand man.

Seeing that it was Wang Min, Lihua was taken aback, and quickly got up and stood up, and at the same time picked up the wine bottle in his hand. But to his surprise, Wang Min just smiled at him, then turned his head away and ignored him.

Zhu Lihua was quite embarrassed, but he also understood the reason for Wang Min's move.

In Yinyangou, Wang Min led an army of 40,000 to the west but returned in vain, while in the north of Qingshui, Wu Meng led 20,000 soldiers and horses to connect the two counties. Zhao Zhihai, who originally pinned hopes on Wang Min, had a very different attitude in comparison, so it was normal for Wang Min to feel neglected.

Moreover, it is rumored that the Northern Expedition was completely the work of Lihua's planning, which made Wang Min directly target him instead of Wu Meng.

Zhu Lihua understands that people's words are terrifying, although Wu Meng is quite upright, and after listening to these words, he even said that it was originally the work of Zhu Lihua's strategy, so he blocked the mouths of some people with ulterior motives, but he knew that not everyone was Wu Meng, and not everyone wanted their subordinates to overshadow him.

Between the staggering, Zhao Zhihai was obviously a little drunk after round of toasting, and the middle-aged man who was as white as jade but also as white as jade raised an arm after politely rejecting the others.

The hall fell silent in an instant, and everyone knew that the general had something to say, and the climax of tonight's banquet was approaching.

As Qin Se Shengxiao stopped suddenly, Zhao Zhihai slowly stood up, smiled and said loudly to the hall: "This great victory, General Wu Meng can be said to have made great contributions, come, General Wu will tell you the beginning and end of this operation, so that the generals can refer to it in detail." ”

After saying that, Zhao Zhihai turned his head to look at Wu Meng with a smile and sat down slowly.

Wu Meng was not polite, as soon as Zhao Zhihai's words fell, he stood up suddenly, and paid homage to Zhao Zhihai, Zhao Zhiliang and Wang Min respectively.

Only then did he say:

"The general praised falsely, Wu Meng was just acting on orders in this operation, and he didn't dare to take what the general said. In the eyes of the last general, the first merit of recovering the two counties is naturally the general's strategy and decisive victory thousands of miles away. ”

Speaking of this, Wu Meng looked at Zhao Zhihai, and there were people in the hall who were familiar with him and said at the same time: "General Wu is right, the general has planned to achieve today's results." ”

"The general is really the pillar of the Great Qin."

"General, you are my Great Qin God of War."

Listening to what everyone in the hall said, Zhu Lihua suddenly felt a little like laughing, these sycophants don't have the ability to do anything, this slap horse is a must, just observe it by himself, but whoever said this was full of justice and awe-inspiring appearance, as if it should be so.

He was afraid that he would laugh out loud, so he wanted to lower his head, but then he found that someone was waving to him constantly, and he turned to see that it was Ma Yuan, who he hadn't seen for a long time.

In the hall just now, Zhu Lihua didn't see Ma Yuan, and thought that he had other arrangements, but now seeing that he was in a hurry to see him late, he couldn't help but feel warm in his heart.

This Ma Yuan is already a military marquis, and he still looks like a hanger.

But Ma Yuan looked at himself, raised his hand and secretly pointed at those people who were patting horses' ass, and then pointed at Zhao Zhihai, and shook his head at Zhu Lihua.

Zhu Lihua understands that Ma Yuan is reminding himself that he must not lose his temper at this time, even if everyone understands the ridiculousness of these sycophants.

Zhu Lihua nodded, and hurriedly put on a face that should be like this, and looked at Zhao Zhihai with reverence.

Ma Yuan saw that Lihua was on the road quickly, secretly gave a thumbs up, and made a look at Lihua who was smiling and nodding at him.