There was no news from the Yan army's scout cavalry for two days, which made Guo Sheng and Feng Hong very anxious, and Guo Sheng had to send a team of scout cavalry again to reconnoiter the movements of the Wei army.

It was only at this time that the second team of scouts sent found the bodies of the first team of scouts ten miles west of Longcheng, all of whom had been killed by the arrows of the Wei army, and everyone was shot into hedgehogs.

At this time, Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan had already arrived in White Wolf City with a large group of people.

The Eastern Crusade took two and a half months, and the Northern Wei side suffered heavy losses, killing the emperor, a respected prince, a duke and more than a dozen ministers accompanying the army, nearly 100,000 Eastern Expeditionary troops, and only more than 22,000 people could go back alive in the end, of which Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan brought back 10,000 people, and came to Daqian to bring back 12,000 people.

Almost all the armies had huge losses, only Zhao Junsheng's Youzhou army suffered the smallest losses, and even Mulan's right wing army of 10,000 horses was left with less than 2,000 men in the end.

The Northern Wei court suffered huge losses, but it fattened Zhao Junsheng, and the property, baggage and population captured and looted by the various armies in the Yan State were all obtained by Zhao Junsheng, which was the property of the entire Yan State. In addition, there are 20,000 households taken away by Zhao Junsheng, and he plans to disperse these people to various parts of Youzhou.

On the ninth day of October, Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan led their troops to Pinggang, where they met Lai Daqian.

Taishou Mansion in Hiraoka Castle.

A lantern hung on the wall to illuminate the lobby, and there were only three people in the lobby: Zhao Junsheng, Lai Daqian, and Hua Mulan, all of whom knelt behind the low table with wine and meat in their regular clothes.

After this period of time, Lai Daqian's opinion of Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan has changed a lot, he picked up the wine cup and said to Zhao Junsheng and Mulan; "Two generals, I came to Daqian to disobey people, this time I am considered to have served two, if it weren't for the two generals who broke off and hit the chasing soldiers hard, we may not be able to get here, and we can't protect the coffins of Your Majesty and the ministers accompanying the army, I respect the two of you!"

Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan picked up the wine cup and saluted: "Come to the general, you're polite, we are all serving the country, regardless of each other, please!" ”

The three of them did a while, and Zhao Junsheng said while pouring wine: "General, now that we have arrived in Pinggang, it should be said that it is generally safe, and the Yan State side does not dare to send troops to pursue it anymore, nor does it have the strength to pursue, I have given an order to Li Chong, the general of Shicheng, to appoint him as the Taishou of Jiande, and let him move to White Wolf City with officials, soldiers and civilians, and give up Shicheng!" Shicheng is too close to Dragon City, Yan Kingdom will not allow us to occupy it for a long time, it should be better to retreat to White Wolf City, with White Wolf City and Yilian City in front of it, Yan Kingdom will not pose much threat to my Youzhou! ”

"Now we can rest assured that there are two roads back to Pingcheng from here to pass through the carriage and horses: the first is to go west to Beigukou into Youzhou, through Youzhou and then to Sizhou; The second way is to go all the way to the west, cross the Great Wall Pass from Chicheng and enter the pass and then go to Pingcheng, I don't know which way the general plans to take? ”

Lai Daqian said: "It's a lot farther to take the road to Youzhou, and the road conditions are not as good as the second road, I plan to take the second road back to Pingcheng!" I know that Zhao Junsheng is going to return to Youzhou, I don't know which way General Hua will go? ”

Hua Mulan looked at Zhao Junsheng and said to Lai Daqian: "The coffins of the emperor and the ministers accompanying the army are guarded by generals and more than 10,000 soldiers, and the marching route is within the Outer Great Wall, so there must be no unsightly people to invade, so I plan to lead the army to Youzhou with Zhao Junsheng first, and then return to Pingcheng after a short rest!" ”

Lai Daqian nodded: "That's fine, but I don't know what's going on in Pingcheng, I'm afraid that a bloody storm will come again!" ”

Pingcheng, late at night, Zongai Waizhai.

"Eunuch, there are 100,000 urgent reports from Youzhou, people are waiting for your reception in the courtyard, he said that the news must be reported to you in person" The eunuch Jia Zhou walked quickly into the Buddhist hall to report to Zong Ai, who was reciting the scriptures.

Zong Ai opened his eyes when he heard this, his eyes flashed, the sound of the wooden fish tapping on his hand stopped, he slowly got up and turned around and ordered: "Go and let him in!" ”

Jia Zhou owed, turned around and walked to the door and beckoned to the man in black standing in the courtyard, the man in black had a sword hanging from his waist, walked to the door of the Buddha hall and untied the sword and handed it to Jia Zhou, and then walked into the Buddha hall.

"The villain Fuying has seen the eunuch!"

Zong Ai asked, "What happened to the Eastern Expeditionary Army?" ”

Fu Ying said: "Zhao Zhijun sent someone to tell his subordinates that when the army was besieging Longcheng, Zhu Xiuzhi, the general of Yunzhong Town, suddenly rebelled, and raided the palace at night, His Majesty and the ministers of the army were slaughtered, and there was no news about the follow-up development, but the villain believes that news will come soon!" ”

Zong Ai couldn't help but tremble when he heard the news, he finally waited for the news, and Zhu Xiuzhi really lived up to his expectations.

When Zhu Xiuzhi agreed to surrender after being captured, Zong Ai followed Tuoba Fitness at that time, and he found that Zhu Xiuzhi did not surrender sincerely, so he secretly tested Zhu Xiuzhi and formed an alliance with him, and both sides took what they needed.

In the following years, Zhu Xiuzhi has been in hibernation, until this year the emperor wants to go east to the Yan Kingdom, Zong Ai took the opportunity to propose to the emperor to send Zhu Xiuzhi to take the Yunzhong Army with the army, in order to test Zhu Xiuzhi's loyalty, the emperor heard it, felt that Zong Ai's proposal was very pathetic, so he ordered Zhu Xiuzhi to bring the Yunzhong Army with him, all of which was planned by the two of them.

Zhu Xiuzhi succeeded, and Zong Ai also achieved his goal, and now he can finally show his strength.

"Someone, change clothes, prepare the car!"

In less than a cup of tea, Zong Ai got into the carriage, which disappeared into the street under the protection of some guards.

Soon the carriage came to the camp of the Left Guard.

"Who is coming, the left guard camp is heavy, and the idle people are stopped!" Outside the camp gate, a tooth master stepped forward with the hilt of his sword in his hand and shouted.

The carriage stopped, and Jia Zhou jumped down from the carriage and stepped forward to hand over the name thorn: "I am tired of reporting to General Wan, and I will say that the father-in-law of Zhongcao Jianzong asks to see him!" ”

That's right, today's General of the Left Guard Army is Wandugui.

The tooth lord handed the thorn to a soldier to report to Wandugui, and it didn't take long for the soldier to return with an order to return to Wandu, and open the camp gate to let the carriage enter.

The coachman drove the carriage to a stop outside the government office, and Wan Dugui was still wearing armor at this time, and he stood under the eaves to greet him.

"Zhong Cao Jian is coming, and he will miss the welcome in the end, forgive his sins!" Wan Du Gui smiled and hugged his fists.

Zong Ai hurriedly got out of the car and waved his hand: "Zong Ai came to disturb the general late at night, please don't blame the general!" ”

"Don't blame, don't blame, please take a seat!"

The two entered the room together, and sat down as the hosts.

In the past few years, the relationship between Zong Ai and Wan Du Gui has been handled very well, when Wan Du Gui was appointed as a town general in Suiyang, Zong Ai was under his rule, and his father was also a subordinate county commander of Wan Du Gui, and the two of them could be regarded as having a friendship with their fellow villagers, and the two came together unconsciously in this treacherous court.

Wan Dugui picked up the teacup and gestured, and asked, "Zhong Cao Jian came here late at night, there must be something important, right?" ”

Zong Ai looked left and right at the soldiers in the lobby, but he didn't say anything.

Seeing this, Wandu Gui knew that he had a secret to say, so he waved his hand: "Let's go down!" ”

When the soldiers all retreated, Zong Ai said in a low voice: "Can the general go one step further and even be knighted and crowned?" ”

Wan Dugui laughed silently: "Zhong Cao Jian said that he was laughing, how is this possible?" ”

Zong Ai Zhengse said: "Zong Ai is absolutely false! ”

Wan Dugui pointed at Zong Ai and said with a smile: "You are here to trick me again, you are not the emperor, how can you have the final say in this title of king?" ”

Zong Ai said: "Although our family is not an emperor, we can make an emperor!" ”

Wan Dugui's face changed, and his expression was extremely serious: "Zhong Cao Jian, this joke can't be made, this is a matter of losing your head!" ”

Zong Ai got up and walked to the door to look, only to see two soldiers standing in the distance, and there was no one around, so he turned around and whispered to Wan Dugui: "Our family just got the top-secret news, the emperor died in the siege of Dragon City, along with more than a dozen ministers with the army, none of them were spared!" ”

Wan Dugui was so startled that he suddenly got up, and he didn't come back to his senses for half a sound.

“······ Is this true? Wan Du Gui asked with difficulty.

"The emperor has people from our family by his side, and this news was sent by Zhao Junsheng to Youzhou by 800 miles of expedited horses, and then brought back by the people from our family stationed in Youzhou. Our family dares to use a head guarantee, and the news sent by others has been intercepted in Youzhou, except for you and me, no one knows the news now! ”

Zong Ai's sworn promise and seriousness made Wandu Gui have to accept this reality.

Wan Dugui suddenly remembered what Zong Ai had just spoken, and he swallowed his saliva, "Do you want to take advantage of the fact that the news has not yet reached Pingcheng and take the lead in establishing a new emperor?" But the ministers of the clan and the court will listen to you? ”

Zong Ai looked at Wandu Gui and said: "So our family didn't come to you, you are the general of the Left Guard, and you have more than 10,000 soldiers and horses in your hands, and now there are only more than 30,000 soldiers and horses inside and outside Pingcheng, and you account for one-third, as long as you stand on our side, we have half of the chance of winning!" ”

Wan Dugui was silent for a few seconds and asked, "Who do you plan to appoint as the new emperor?" ”

Zong Ai said: "The new emperor must be easy for us to control, if the emperor is too assertive, you and I will be kicked away sooner or later, or even in a different place!" Therefore, our family thinks that Tuoba Ren, the son of the first emperor, is suitable to inherit the unification, what do you think? ”

Wan Dugui frowned: "It's too young, that kid is only four years old." Besides, if you make such a child the new emperor, how many brothers of the former emperor can agree? Especially Tuoba Fan, Tuoba Chong and Tuoba Jun, how could they be willing? Can the clans agree? ”

Zong Ai smiled: "The general is too worried, it is easy to control at a young age, if any of the three of Tuoba Fan, Tuoba Chong and Tuoba Jun succeed to the throne, will you and I have a better life?" We don't have any friendship with them! ”

"Among the three princes, only Tuoba Fan makes me jealous, this person is a cavalry general, with military power in his hands, we can find a way to get rid of him, as for Tuoba Chong and Tuoba Jun, if they give in, it's just a matter of giving them a way to live, if they want to turn the sky upside down, kill them!" Zong Ai's ruthless face was murderous.