In October of the second year of Qingyuan, less than thirty miles outside the city of Jiezhou, Ye Qing once again ordered the army to stop advancing, and Li An'an, who had been following closely on the left and right, immediately handed over the kettle diligently, and the pu fan in his hand that he didn't know where to find it was slowly swaying beside Ye Qing, with a flattering smile, looking at Ye Qing who was a little puzzled.

It's been three days since he entered the realm of the Jin people, but now he hasn't recruited a single soldier of the Jin people, and even the scouts he released have not touched the Jin soldiers, which makes Ye Qing feel confused for an instant, and he can't figure out the pacification envoys of Pingyang and the two prefectures in Hezhong, is it possible that he and his army are blind?

Now it has entered the end of the autumn harvest, but even so, along the way, you can still see the people working in the fields, when you see the Song army with the flag fluttering, they will instantly turn into birds and beasts scattered, and the crops and farm tools that have just been packed in the field are scattered all over the place, which seems to be quite messy.

Therefore, according to this theory, even if the actions of Hezhong and Pingyang are slow, even if these three days are not enough time for them to prepare their army, they should at least send some scouts to investigate the military situation, right?

But now that Ye Qing has traveled all the way, except for the people working in the fields, he has never met anyone again, let alone the hordes of golden people.

The pu fan on the side made Ye Qing a little impetuous, and he snatched the pu fan in Li An'an's hand angrily, looked at Li An'an, who was cautious along the way, and asked after thinking for a while: "Xingqinghou, tell me, what's going on with this golden man?" Why is it that there is no army to stop us until now? ”

"Your Excellency." Li An'an had a flattering smile on his face, and said: "Your Excellency is famous, the first battle of Yanzhou scared the courage of the Jin soldiers, and now I see your lord leading the troops to fight again, naturally I don't dare to fight against you, I'm afraid that at this time, like the people in the fields we met, I would have thrown down the city and fled ......for my life." ”

"Forget it, you can rest for a while, I listened to your compliments along the way, and my ears were about to hear the calluse." The so-called reaching out and not hitting the smiling person, Li An'an was obedient and on-call along the way, except for his unreliable speech, the rest still made Ye Qing quite satisfied.

"My lord, what the lower officials said is definitely not a lie, if not, why do you say that after we swaggered into the Golden Mirror, why didn't they stop us? I must have been frightened by your prestige and didn't dare to leave the city, and I'm afraid I'm already thinking about how to surrender to you at this time. Li An'an continued to flatter with extreme optimism.

"If I Ye Qing loses this battle, Li An'an, this must have an absolute relationship with your flattery." Ye Qing raised his head and poured a sip of water, and Yelu Yue, who was also nearly thirty miles away from them, sent a scout to ask why the Jin people seemed to have disappeared out of thin air, why didn't they see any of them.

"No, no, absolutely not, your ......." Li Angang wanted to continue to flatter Ye Qing, but after seeing Ye Qing glaring at him, he immediately suffocated the next words back into his stomach.

Ye Qing didn't carry much grain and grass on this trip, precisely because he set out to catch up with the end of the autumn harvest, so that in the plan, the answer to the problem of grain and grass fell on the two prefectures of Pingyang and Hezhong.

Naturally, he will not rob the people's grain, let alone ask for it, but if he grabs the grain of the Jin State Mansion, he will naturally not be soft, not to mention that there is Li An'an, a subordinate who bullies the soft and is afraid of being hard like a bandit, so Ye Qing has already made up his mind, as long as once he captures Pingyang and Hezhong, he will immediately let Li An'an go to rob the grain of the official mansion.

But now all this is extremely weird, and now he hasn't even touched a single golden soldier, which makes him suspicious and somewhat worried.

Dong Chao has never been active on Hedongnan Road, because in Ye Qing's view, Yanmen in the sixteen states of Yanyun, and Hedongbei Road, where Taiyuan is located, are his top priorities, so now, in addition to knowing how to go north to Taiyuan, as well as the location of Pingyang and Hezhong, he is not very clear about who the officials of these two provinces are.

He didn't take Li An'an's words seriously, and was about to send scouts to Pingyang and Hezhong Prefectures in the north and south of Jiezhou to investigate, when a rapid sound of horses' hooves sounded in his ears from far and near.

As if he had been stepped on by his tail, Li An'an immediately shouted in a sharp voice: "Everyone is ready to fight ......." ”

Ye Qing didn't wait for Li An'an to finish shouting, and kicked Li An'an's buttocks: "Idiot, is this sound of horses' hooves like the rumbling sound of horses' hooves when the army marches?" ”

Although there were only more than 3,000 people as the advance team, even so, Ye Qing could guarantee that it would be absolutely impossible for the Jin people to enter the flower planting army within a radius of ten miles without realizing it, and Li An'an's shouting would only add chaos to the army that stopped to rest.

"Your Excellency forgives your sins...... This one...... The lower officials were too nervous. Li An'an took a few steps back after being kicked, looked at Ye Qing and smiled a little embarrassedly.

The scout came to Ye Qing's side, holding a letter in his hand, reporting that he had finally found the spies of the Jin people more than ten miles away, but there were only a dozen people, and after being surrounded by them, he immediately put down the weapons in his hands.

"Where are the people?" Ye Qing took the letter handed over by the scout, and after glancing at the words of the commander of the Song army on it, he asked the scout: "Have you interrogated, where is their army?" ”

"Back to my lordship, after interrogation, the Jin people spies said that they only came to send you a letter on the order of the pacification envoy, and they don't know where their army is." The scout replied to Ye Qing's words.

And Ye Qing lowered his head to open the letter, and said to lead the way, so he took Li An'an to follow the scouts and check on the few golden people who sent the letter.

The names of the two Jin people appeasement envoys Ye Qing sounded familiar, but for a while, he couldn't remember where he had heard of them, or whether he knew these two people.

Stopped in an instant, turned to Li An'an, who was walking with his head down and almost bumped into him, Ye Qing thought for a while and said, "Go find the iron-clothed general immediately, let Yelu Chucai rush here, I have something to ask him." ”

Li An'an, who hurriedly stopped, was stunned for a moment, then nodded immediately, and casually beckoned a few soldiers from the Flower Plantation Army, who didn't even dare to bring his own henchman, and immediately followed the original road with his horse, running in the direction of the real army behind him.

Li An'an has now completely given up the idea of returning to the country, especially after he caught up with Ye Qing, and gradually recalled some things in the past few days.

Especially in the army behind him, he wanted to perform his best in front of Yelu Tieyi, it stands to reason that Yelu Chucai should remind himself as soon as possible, but whether it was Yelu Chucai or that Yelu Yixue, they all watched themselves currying favor with Yelu Tieyi, and then it wasn't until two days later that Yelu Chucai suddenly told himself that Yelu Tieyi was Ye Qing's wife.

Li An'an, who came back to his senses, instantly understood that this was obviously a trick set by Ye Qing and his wife, as well as Yelu Chucai, Yelu Yixue and others, who hoped to take this opportunity to firmly grasp the 10,000 Liao soldiers in his hands, so as to completely eliminate the influence they might have on the entire army.

Li An'an did think about personally leading the Liao army of more than 10,000 people, so that he hoped that in the process of fighting with the Jin, he could hold some bargaining and even other bargaining chips.

Similarly, he had made all kinds of preparations in advance, if Ye Qing asked him for these people, how could he politely refuse and so on, but he didn't expect that Ye Qing would take away his army power in this way, without a trace.

And after he came to Ye Qing's side single-handedly, Li An'an already knew that his general trend was gone, and now there was no other bargaining chip or method to ensure his safety except to follow Ye Qing's side with all his heart.

After all, with his army being left far behind, if Ye Qing really wanted to get rid of him Li An'an, he could completely slaughter himself when he was fighting with the Jin people, and then blame the Jin people for his death, so that the soldiers and horses he had secretly accumulated in Helan Mountain over the years would naturally be completely thrown into Ye Qing because of his jealousy of the Jin people, and he would die in vain.

Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, Li An'an completely let go of the shackles, and he didn't think about it at all anymore about recovering or other things, and now he just thought that through this battle against Jin, he could bring back his not so good impression in Ye Qing's heart, and it was enough for Ye Qing to appreciate him.

The sky was getting dark, and the flower planting army led by Ye Qing did not give up investigating the surrounding situation because of the letter of surrender from the Jin people to appease Tian Li and Wang Rujia, on the contrary, after Ye Qing received this letter of surrender, the army of the flower planting family also sent scouts to patrol the surroundings.

Yelu Chucai, who was covered with sweat, followed Li An'an and finally came to Ye Qing, above the low loess mound next to the official road, Ye Qing was holding the letter in his hand alone in a daze, watching the two of them deep and shallow to the heel, and immediately handed the letter of surrender in his hand to Yelu Chucai.

A torch that was not too bright was brought to him, and after Yelu Chucai glanced at it with some surprise, he immediately looked down at the letter of surrender.

"What's your impression of that?" Without waiting for Yelu Chucai to finish reading the letter, Ye Qing couldn't wait to ask.

did not immediately answer Ye Qing's question, after reading the letter and handing it to Ye Qing, Yelu Chucai said with a relaxed smile on his face: "Lord Ye really can't remember these two people at all?" ”

Ye Qing shook his head: "The name is a little familiar, but after thinking about it for a long time, I didn't remember what intersection they had with me." ”

Yelu Chucai sighed slightly, turned his gaze to the starry sky in the distance, and looked at the blinking stars, but a sense of sadness rose in his heart: "Maybe this is the will of heaven." Tian Li and Wang Rujia were originally sent to the Ministry of Industry to supervise the water, but at that time, Lord Ye, you had just captured Shandong Lianglu and Jingzhaofu Road, ....... ”

After being reminded by Yelu Chucai, Ye Qing instantly remembered that at that time, the Yellow River flooded and flooded a large number of fields, leaving the people displaced and homeless.

At that time, he had just captured a few roads in the north, and he was on the flood of the Yellow River, which was enough to affect the foundation of the north, although he wanted to make every effort to control the water, but because the Song people had left the northland for many years, they did not know as much about the water situation of the Yellow River as the Jin officials, whether it was how to dredge it, build embankments, etc.

At that time, Wan Yan Yong died when he attacked Jinan, and Wan Yan Jing, as the prince, was on the ice of the Yellow River that day with red eyes and cried at himself with red eyes and shouted that the emperor's grandfather had died .......

The past reverberated in front of me, and after spending that cold winter, when the Yellow River began to thaw, it began to flood downstream, making the northern land that Ye Qing had just occupied at that time even more disastrous and miserable than after a tragic war.

It was precisely because Wan Yan Jing still had a trace of teacher-student affection for Ye Qing at that time, so in the face of Ye Qing, who had taken away several territories of their Dajin Kingdom, Wan Yan Jing, who had just ascended to the Great Treasure, still generously sent two officials from the capital water supervisor, Tian Li and Wang Rujia, to help the north control the water.

"Even so, it's not enough for Tian Li and Wang Rujia to surrender to me, right?" Ye Qing, who had come back from the past, asked in a low voice.

Yelu Chucai didn't know why suddenly, Ye Qing's voice not only became a little low, but even his emotions seemed to become a little low, put aside the doubts in his heart, and after smiling bitterly, he further explained: "Because...... There was ...... infighting in the court. ”

Yelu Chucai let out another long sigh full of emotion, and then said slowly: "It is precisely because Tian Li and Wang Rujia helped your lord control the water on the two roads in Shandong, and after returning to the Yanjing court, he began to be attacked by other courtiers to pass through the Song, but even so, the saint still has great trust in the two of them, and even ...... Because the two of them were in the north to control the water, so they also learned the specific camping place of the various armies in the north, and now that I think about it, the saint is willing to send two people to help the adults control the water, I am afraid that he has taken a fancy to this, and he has taken a fancy to the fact that he can check the situation of the various armies under the command of the adults by helping the north to control the water. ”

"This is also the reason why when I was in the predicament of Guanshan, you suddenly divided your troops into two ways, all the way to attack Jinan Mansion, and all the way to attack Jingzhao Mansion?" Ye Qing's expression was still incomprehensible, and his mood was still a little depressed and asked.

"But in the end, Lord Ye escaped the catastrophe of Guanshan, and then took away the three roads of Hetao." Yelu Chucai smiled helplessly again: "It is precisely because of the loss of the third road of Hetao and the defeat in Jinan Mansion that the ministers once again blamed Tian Li and Wang Rujia, thinking that it was they who provided fake military information, so that Dajin Kingdom lost the third road of Hetao and was defeated under the city of Jinan Mansion." However, according to my guess, obviously the saint did not think that it was the responsibility of Tian Li and Wang Rujia, after all, this is the saint's decree to let the two of them assist the adults in controlling the water, if it is attributed to the responsibility of the two, then wouldn't even the saint have made a mistake? But the so-called capital crime can be avoided, and the living crime cannot be escaped, so that the two were sent to various ways one after another. After the first battle of Yanzhou, because of the sharp weapon in the hands of the 3,000 battalions under the command of Lord Ye, which could cause the Yellow River to burst the embankment and flood the entire Hedongnan Road, the imperial court sent the two to the Hedongnan Road, that is, away from the court, and was able to strengthen the embankment, so as not to prepare for the next possible battle with the adults. ”

"So these two people surrendered to me because they were dissatisfied with the suppression of the imperial court?" Ye Qing frowned and asked.

In this letter of surrender, it can be seen that the two did not know who the commander of the army was this time, and the letter also mentioned that they would leave this letter to themselves to decide, so they hoped that before he Ye Qing decided to accept the surrender, the Song army could temporarily not attack Hezhong and Pingyang.

"I'm just a small outsider in the imperial court, and it's not easy to know this, that's all, and most of them are from my father. However, in my opinion, because of the suppression of the imperial court, Toucheng should only be part of the reason, and the identity of the two as Song people should also be a reason, but if there are other reasons, I'm afraid you have to ask them face to face. Yelu Chucai spread his hands and said.

The situation of Hedongnan Road, if it is really as said in this letter, then this is simply too beneficial for Ye Qing, and he can take Hedongnan Road without blood, and then he can directly point to Taiyuan Mansion and Yanmen Pass on Hedongbei Road, in this way, I am afraid it will be a fatal blow to the Yanjing court.

Ye Qing nodded silently, and then said: "There is no need to rush back to the army behind you, if Tian Li and Wang Rujia will appear early tomorrow morning, then it will not be too late for you to go back, and if it does not appear, then you will attack Pingyang Mansion, as for Hezhong Mansion in the south, it will be ambushed by Yelu Tieyi." ”

On the one hand, it is a feint to attack Pingyang Mansion, and on the other hand, Yelu Tieyi is to ambush it, and the army of Hezhong Mansion that may come to the aid is not a clever strategy, but if Tian Li and Wang Rujia's letter of surrender is just a strategy to delay the army, then when Ye Qing attacks Pingyang Mansion, Hezhong Mansion will inevitably lead troops to help.

At this time, in the city of Jiezhou, Pingyang and Hezhong's pacification envoy Tian Li and Wang Rujia were solemn, and the two looked at each other silently.

The moment the knock sounded, Tian Li and Wang Rujia stood up almost at the same time, and the spies sent out today to deliver the letter of Chengcheng have not come back yet, which has made the two of them unable to put their minds at ease, so they have stayed up until now, when they heard the knock on the door, the two immediately responded to the call at the same time.

"Song Jun's reply?" Tian Li's white beard trembled slightly, and his hands trembled and took the letter brought back by the spy and asked.

"Yes, my lord, this is the reply of the commander of the Song army." The spy said respectfully.

"They didn't embarrass you?" Wang Rujia looked at the spy who was sweating and had no scars on his body, and asked with some surprise.

"It didn't hurt us, and all fourteen of us were released." The spies did not hide that when they were suddenly surrounded by the Song army scouts, they immediately put down their weapons and surrendered, after all, they were ordered by the two pacification envoys to submit the letter of surrender, so there was no need to be hard with the Song scouts.

As the spies walked out of the room, Wang Rujia and Tian Li glanced at each other again, and then their eyes fell on the reply at the same time, and for a while, they didn't know whether to open it or not.

"The matter has come to this point, the two of us have no choice, the queen's brother Li Xi'er and Brother Li Tie will never spare us. Now the saint is obedient to the queen, and now he ...... We have no other way out but to surrender to the Song army. Wang Rujia looked at the reply in Tian Li's hand and said with a bitter expression.

If it weren't for the safety of dozens of people in a family, they would not have chosen to surrender to the Song people, but now, because of the grievances between them and Li Tiege and Li Xi'er in their early years, they have no place in Dajin Country, and now they have no choice but to surrender to the Song people.

Trembling and opening the letter, what caught the eyes of the two was a simple sentence: Open the gate of the state city tomorrow to show the sincerity of surrender, Ye Qing.

"Ye Qing?!" The two looked at each other in shock by the name of the inscription, and even couldn't believe that the army outside the city was now led by Ye Qingqin!

The two couldn't hide their shock and looked at each other, if the army outside the city was led by Ye Qing, then ...... So why did they have to wait until tomorrow to open the gates and deliver the official surrender?

It is completely possible to take the official surrender letter to welcome Ye Qing into the city now, after all, this is not the other generals of the Song army, one night is one night late, and it will be submitted early tomorrow morning and tonight, at least it can retain some so-called face, and escape the cynicism that the Song generals may have at them overnight.

But if Ye Qing was outside the city now, how could they have the courage to let Ye Qing wait outside the city all night after learning about this?

This was a rare opportunity that was completely beyond their imagination, in their expectation, the Song people would enter the city to accept the surrender, and then they would be strictly guarded by the Song people for an indefinite period of time, waiting for Ye Qing to take the time to see them once.

After all, now the Song people are at war with the Jin people, so after they surrender to Chengcheng, whether they can see Ye Qing in a short period of time, they don't dare to have much extravagant hope at all, whether Ye Qing has time, whether he personally leads the army to collect gold, it's all unknown, isn't it?

If you don't have the opportunity to listen to the heavens in front of you, then the two who have already done a good job of surrendering are stupid and can't be stupid anymore.

So the two gritted their teeth at the same time, looked at each other firmly, and said, "Get out of the city immediately, Lord Yingye!" ”