Chapter 456: Do You Want to Kill Me?

After talking to Li Chao, Li Chao returned to Chengdu with Shi Bin's decision, and Shi Bin continued to serve as his governor and privy deputy envoy in Lin'an City, pretending not to know anything, and quietly waiting for the news that Xi'an's march was blocked.

After sending troops, Xi'an marched all the way and was invincible, taking Tongchuan in ten days, Huangling in one month, and Yan'an in two months. So far, all of Shaanxi except Yulin has been recaptured. On the contrary, it was Lu Wende's unfavorable march all the way, and it took two months and more than 8,000 losses to gain a foothold in Pinglu.

However, at this time, there was an accident all the way to Xi'an, and Wang San, the deputy commander of this road army, charged forward during the battle, and as a result, he fell down with typhoid fever and could no longer lead the troops to fight.

As a result, the speed of the march on the western route slowed down, and Chen Yan and Li Tingzhi were still confident in recovering Yulin, but they had little confidence in crossing the Yellow River and fighting with Lu Wende to reclaim Hedong.

So it was decided to recapture Yulin first, and then try to cross the river to fight. If the battle is unfavorable, they will either retreat to Shaanxi or join forces with Lu Wende to fight against the Yuan, and at the same time ask the Song court for assistance. As for Wang San, he was sent back to Chengdu directly.

The first two months were very happy, because most of them were good news, and the slightest unpleasant news was that the attack was blocked rather than defeated. It was not until the third month that the situation became bad, because Yulin could not be attacked for a long time, and Lu Wende was trapped in Yuncheng and Pinglu, and it was very embarrassing to advance and retreat.

Fortunately, the Yuan people's water army was not strong and could not block Lu Wende's grain route, which did not put Lu Wende in a dangerous situation.

After two or three months of such a stalemate, spending money like water but no gain, looking at the constant complaints of the head of the household department that the treasury was insufficient in money, Li Zong already had the idea of retreating and fully withdrawing his troops after retaking Yulin.

Of course, this kind of thinking is unacceptable to the main battle faction, in their opinion, Yan'an and Yulin have long been in the bag, and even if they are taken, it is nothing. It was too humiliating to prepare carefully for more than a year, but it turned out that the troops were planned to withdraw before there was a real battle.

The people in the court are arguing, and the people on the battlefield are anxious. Gradually, people discovered a problem, all this happened after Wang San left. The embarrassment of Xi'an all the way is the most obvious.

So there was a royal history play, indicating that Wang San was ordered to lead the army again. In their opinion, two or three months of recuperation from an arrow wound is enough to recover as long as it is not serious.

Li Zong very much agreed with this proposal, and immediately ordered Wang San to go on the expedition again as a deputy commander. However, the news from Chengdu was disappointing: Wang San had been bedridden for a month.

Seeing that the situation was almost off, Li Chao activated the previously agreed plan: unite all the people who support Shi Bin to protect Shi Bin as the commander of the Xi'an First Road Army, and immediately solve this dilemma. Of course, this method is good, everyone knows that Wang San is a tiger general under Shi Bin. Wang San's combat effectiveness is so strong, if Shi Bin goes, won't this problem be solved?

However, this proposal was not echoed by many neutrals, because there was a very sensitive issue, and Li Zong was afraid that Shi Bin would become a big deal, so he had been cutting his power. If Shi Bin is allowed to make meritorious contributions at this time, once Shi Bin really has a big tail and has a backlash, he is likely to be considered Shi Bin's comrade, and he must be careful of disasters from the sky. Anyway, it was not their own interests that were hurt but the interests of the Great Song Dynasty, in order to keep their wealth and nobility, those neutrals chose to watch from the wall and protect themselves.

One blow, and another

Decline, three and exhaustion. After a stalemate for about half a year, Yulin was still not taken, and Lu Wende only took Linfen again, but he was trapped by the Yuan people who had eased up. The inability to advance or retreat like this made Li Zong restless again.

Zhao Kui was not afraid that the Song army would be wiped out because of this, because several important crossings of the Yellow River were still under the control of Lu Wende, and they could retreat at any time. What he was worried about was that he spent a lot of money and food but only recovered a few states and counties, and it was still the kind that was at his fingertips, which was a great shame for him Zhao Kui.

What made Zhao Kui feel incomprehensible was that Shi Bin had a completely indifferent attitude, as if the disadvantage of entering the army had nothing to do with him. After work, I still wander around, eat, drink and have fun, and I am very comfortable.

The war lasted for nearly eight months, and Zhao Kui could no longer tolerate such a stalemate, and finally ran to Shi Bin's house to drink tea one afternoon.

"Lord Zhao, aren't you on duty this afternoon, why did you come here to me? It's not good for Lord Zaifu to leave his post secretly, and it will cause criticism. Shi Bin smiled.

I don't think Shi Bin doesn't know what he came to the door for, but I don't think he is deliberately embarrassing himself, most of the time he is pretending to be crazy and stupid. After all, now Shi Bin is also an old fritter, and he is no longer a straight fledgling.

"No, it won't. No one will think that Lord Lai Shi is just a visitor, and will only think that I want to discuss something important with you. ”

understands why Zhao Kui is so confident, because he has a very good official reputation and has always put the interests of the Great Song Dynasty first. Where does such a conscientious Zaisuke still have the leisure to go to the governor's house and the privy deputy envoy to drink tea and chat at this time? Looking at Zhao Kui in front of him, Shi Bin's respect for him spontaneously emerged.

Shi Bin felt a little ashamed of the oily tone just now, so he said: "Lord Zhao said that even if everyone in the world is slack, Lord Zhao will not slack off. Then why did Lord Zhao come here? ”

"Lord Shi, the old man is here to discuss something." Zhao Kui said unabashedly: "Now that my Great Song Dynasty has been blocked for nearly half a year, my morale has fallen sharply. I'm not worried that the two armies won't be able to protect themselves, but it's really unpleasant to spend so much money and food and only get a few small states and counties. ”

Shi Bin was also very unhappy about this situation, but he didn't want to pay attention to it, because Li Zong had not been forced into a corner and had no intention of using him Shi Bin. He didn't want to use his hot face to stick to Rizune's cold ass. So it was just a coping way to say that he understood Zhao Kui's mentality very well, and he also wanted to come out to help reduce Zhao Kui's pressure, but he was afraid that Li Zong was suspicious, so he could only protect himself.

Although it was an old fritter in officialdom, Zhao Kui didn't expect that Wang Sanzhong's arrow injury and typhoid fever were just a play played by Shi Bin, so he didn't blame Shi Bin, but expressed his disappointment from his words and demeanor.

Since it was a well-planned bureau, of course, it couldn't be broken because of Zhao Kui's disappointment, so Shi Bin just apologized, saying that although he had the heart to contribute, he didn't dare to anger Li Zong.

But he can't let Zhao Kui feel that he Shi Bin is a villain who only knows how to protect himself, and such a huge personality change is also easy to arouse the suspicion of Zhao Kui. Therefore, Shi Bin still left some hope for Zhao Kui: as long as there is enough support, he Shi Bin is still willing to go to the soup for the Great Song Dynasty to solve this dilemma.

Enough support? Of course, Zhao Kui understood the meaning. Knowing that it is useless to talk more, what I need to do now is to help Shi Bin find support. Therefore, Zhao Kui immediately left to help Shi Bin find support.

It didn't take long for Zhao Kui to get his protégé and more than 50 people from the township party, and jointly asked Li Zong to order Shi Bin to be the new commander of Xi'an all the way, and march into Yulin to meet Lu Wende.

For several months in a row, countless money and food were wasted, and the household officials disturbed me very unhappily.

Now that he has received such an excerpt, Rizong's first thought is 'no'. But knowing that he couldn't reject the joint performance of more than 50 officials so easily, Li Zong had no choice but to summon Li Fu and Zhao Kui into the palace to discuss the matter.

The situation was much more than Li Zong expected, Li Fu and Zhao Kui both said that they should immediately send Shi Bin to lead the army to relieve the siege.

In this case, of course, Li Zong ordered Shi Bin to be summoned into the palace to discuss with him and the other two about the specific plan of marching.

On the way, Shi Bin had already learned the ins and outs of the matter from the little eunuch who passed the decree, and he was also very surprised by this situation. But two things are clear: First, you must not say yes so easily. Second, we must find out the situation.

After entering the study, Li Zong talked to Shi Bin very kindly, like a wise man through the ages. Shi Bin also responded naturally, like a good official who was worried about the world.

After the foreplay was enough, Li Zong said: "Shi Aiqing, I believe you already know that during this time, my Great Song Dynasty's army was blocked, and the situation was a little bad. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty. Weichen knew that Lord Chen Yan's army was blocked in Yulin, and Lord Lu Wende's army was blocked and could not advance an inch on the line between Yuncheng and Linfen. Shi Bin said very 'melancholy' and sighed very 'helplessly'.

At this time, Li Fu jumped out and said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that if you send Lord Shi to lead the troops at this time, the matter will definitely be solved." ”

After hearing this, Li Zong gave Li Fu and Zhao Kui an inquiring look. And Li Fu and Zhao Kui nodded solemnly.

Then Li Zong spoke: "Shi Aiqing, Zhao Aiqing, and Li Aiqing all think that you will definitely be able to break the siege if you lead your troops to fight, and I also have this idea. Would you like to go? ”

Shi Bin immediately acted, and said very 'frightened': "Lord Li, Lord Zhao, I, Shi Bin and the two of you have no grievances, how can you harm me so much?" ”

Such a voice made Li Zong, Zhao Kui and Li Fu all feel incredible. Isn't being able to lead the army to the expedition what he Shi Bin hopes for the most? Now they are all in favor of letting him do this, how can it harm him? The puzzled three naturally asked one after another, especially Li Fu asked the most fiercely, saying that if Shi Bin didn't explain the matter clearly today, he Li Fu would not give up.

Since he dared to howl like this, Shi Bin naturally relied on it. After listening to the angry rebuke of several people, Shi Bin said unhurriedly: "Two adults, Shi Bin wants to ask, have these two armies suffered heavy losses at present, or have they been forced into the Yuanren City and have no way to retreat?" ”

Hit hard and unable to retreat? Neither, although the situation is tense, it is a stalemate rather than a crisis. Therefore, the three of them shook their heads in unison.

"That's the problem. Since things are not so critical, is it a little inappropriate to send me there at this time? Master Lu said that he could understand why I was sent all the way to Xi'an. But what will Chen Yan and Li Tingzhi think? Shi Bin asked. After a while, he snorted coldly and said, "Aren't the two adults harming me?" Do you want me to be the target of public criticism? ”

After Shi Bin's rhetorical question, there was no sound in the study, and Zhao Kui and the others were embarrassed. Even the emperor was a little afraid to look at Shi Bin. Because he had never received a letter asking for help from the beginning of the battle, if he really sent Shi Bin over, it would indeed be easy for Shi Bin to become the target of public criticism, and it would indeed harm him.

Since the three of them were suppressed, Shi Bin immediately said: "Your Majesty, two adults, I still have some official business to do, so I will leave first." If you want to discuss things next time, please think about it first! ”

Then he swaggered out of the palace.

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